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THE

BOOK OF BIRDS;

INTENDED FOR THE AMUSEMENT AND INSTRUCTION

OF

YOUNG PEOPLE.

ILLUSTRATED WITH SIXTEEN ELEGANT PLATES,

Philadelphia:

GEORGE S. APPLETON, 164 CHESTNUT ST.

NEW YORK:

D. APPLETON & CO., 200 BROADWAY.

1860.

A

t %

Entered aocording to Act of Congress, in the year 1849, by
GEO. S. APPLETON,

in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States, in and for the
Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

59^.2.

"B 6 ^

REMOTE -

OF BIRDS.

No class of the animal kingdom is more interesting than
Birds. Their infinite variety of form, habits, and manners ;
their plumage, always beautiful, often rich and gorgeous ;
their powers of flight and grace of motion, their curious
nests, their varied music; the bittern’s boom, the cawing of
the busy rooks, the cock’s shrill clarion, the capricious lay
of the mocking-bird, or the sweet warbling of the oriole — •
nay, even the hoarse cries of the sea-birds, and the garrulous
clucking of the barn-fowls — these all combine to endear us
to the feathered creation, since all are appropriate — all are
the voice of Nature. The* birds are associated with many
delightful scenes dear to memory.

Who sees the swallow on his first return and dreams not

vi

OF BIRDS.

of spring in times long past ? Who hears the song of the
blue bird or the bob-o-link without a delightful reminiscence
of school-boy days, ready to repeat with Wordsworth :

“ And I can listen to thee yet,

And lie upon the plain ;

And listen till I do beget
That golden time again.”

Hence it is that, although all birds are interesting, the
birds of our own country are most attractive. We have
marked their ways ; we have watched them building their
nests and rearing their young; we have listened to their
ringing notes when “ creeping like snail unwillingly to
school,” and longing for a ramble in the fields. They are
associated with all our rural pleasures, all our holiday
sports ; and we love them for their being indissolubly linked
in our memories with a happy past.

The characteristics which distinguish birds from the other
classes of vertebrated animals, are that they lay eggs, from
which their young are hatched by what is called incubation ;
their skins are covered with feathers, and their jaws are
horny, without teeth. Their blood is warm and circulates

OF BIRDS.

Vll

like that of the Mammalia. The six orders of birds, are
as follows : S

1. Raptor es, or birds of prey. These birds are distin-
guished by a very strong and sharp bill more or less curved,
but always hooked at the extremity of the upper mandible,
which is covered at the base with a kind of skin called the
cere. The nostrils are usually open. The legs are very
strong, and generally only partially covered with feathers ;
the feet are large, and the toes, which are four in number,
are armed with very strong, sharp, curved, prehensile claws.
The principal raptorial birds are the vultures, including the
condor; the falcon family, including the eagles, hawks,
kites, and buzzards ; and the owls.

2. Insessores , or perching birds. These birds have all feet
formed for perching, the hind toe springing from the same
place as the other toes, which gives them great power of
grasping. Their legs are of moderate length, and their
claws not sharply curved. This order includes the thrushes,
nightingales, and all the finest songsters of our groves, with
the robin-redbreast, the sparrow, and other birds seen about
dwellings, the swallows, the larks, the crow family, the king-
fishers, the birds of paradise, and the humming birds.

OF BIRDS.

Vlll

3. Scansores, or climbers. These birds have two toes
before and two behind, or rather they have the power of
throwing one of the fore toes back at pleasure. This con-
struction gives them such great power of climbing, that they
can ascend the perpendicular trunk of a tree. The princi-
pal birds in this order are the parrot family and the wood-
peckers.

4. Rasores , or gallinaceous birds. These birds have the
head small in proportion to the body. The bill is generally
short, with the other mandible somewhat curved, and fur-
nished with a cere. The nostrils have usually a protecting
fleshy membrane. The tarsus, or lower part of the leg, is
long and bare, and there are four toes, those in front being
united by a slight membrane, while that behind is generally
higher up the leg, and smaller than the others. This
order comprises nearly all the birds used as food, and it
includes the peacock, the turkey, the common cock and
hen, the partridge, the pheasant, and the pigeon family.

5. Gr allator es, or Waders. These birds are characterized
by their long and slender legs, and generally bare thighs.
Their feet have generally three toes, more or less united at
the base by a web, and the central toe is often longer and

OF BIRDS.

IX

stronger than the rest ; the hind toe is sometimes wanting.
This order contains the ostrich family, the bustards and
plovers ; the cranes, herons, and storks ; and the snipes and
woodcocks.

6. Palmipedes, or web-footed birds. These birds have
the legs and feet short, and placed behind, with their fore
toes united by a thick and strong membrane. The neck is
much longer than the legs, and their bodies are covered
with a dense layer of down, beneath the outer plumage,
which is close, and imbued with an oily fluid that repels the
water. The principal birds in this order are the coots and
grebes, the auks and penguins, the petrels, the pelican and
cormorant, and the swans, ducks, and geese.

Not only does the form of the bird fit it for flying, but
its lungs are extended by means of air-cells extending among
the muscles; and its bones are hollow, and not filled with
marrow, but with air. Other circumstances in their internal
structure serve to facilitate the flight of birds, and to make
them quite at ease when on the wing.

In variety birds far exceed quadrupeds. There are many
thousand species, distinguished from each other by differ-

X

OF BIRDS.

ences of configuration, colour, and habits; but the grand
distinctions are so few that a tolerably correct idea of this
part of the animal kingdom may be formed, even by such
a general and succinct view as that which we propose to
give to the reader ; and we hope, by enlivening our descrip-
tions with occasional illustrative anecdotes, to render our
account interesting as well as instructive.

CONTENTS.

THE CONDOR . . . . % .

THE TURKEY-BUZZARD

THE WASHINGTON EAGLE

THE WHITE-HEADED; OR BALD EAGLE .

THE FALCON

THE OSPREY; OR FISHING-HAWK .

THE AMERICAN GOSHAWK .

THE HAWK OWL

THE GREAT HORNED OWL .

TH# SWALLOW

THE CHIMNEY SWALLOW

THE BANK SWALLOW

11

PAGE

21

25

26

29

31

35

36

38

39

45

47

47

CON FB NTS,

xii

THE BALTIMORE ORIOLE ....

THE ROBIN

THE NIGHTINGALE

THE RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD, OR TROOPIAL

THE SKYLARK

THE CARDINAL BIRD ....

THE MOCKING-BIRD

THE CROW . .

THE WHIP-POOR-WILL ....

THE CUCKOO

THE KINGFISHER

THE GREEN WOODPECKER

THE TOUCAN

THE CAROLINA PARROT ....

THE PEACOCK

THE TURKEY

THE PINTADO, OR GUINEA HEN .

THE TAME PIGEON ....

THE OSTRICH

THE CASSOWARY

THE WHOOPING CRANE ....
THE BLACK-NECKED STILT

. 48
52
. 55
58

. 62
64
. 67
70
. 74
76
. 78

79
. 79

80
. 85

86
. 87
89
. 90
^93
.94
97

CONTENTS,

THE FLAMINGO ....

Wilson’s stormy petrel

THE PIED OYSTER-CATCHER
THE GREAT HERON .

THE WOOD IRIS ....

THE SNOW GOOSE . .

THE WANDERING ALBATROSS .

THE SWAN

THE CINEREOUS COOT
THE SUMMER, OR WOOD DUCK
THE COMMON DUCK, OR MALLARD
THE CANVAS S-BACK DUCK

THE PELICAN

THE CORMORANT . . . .

THE BLACK AND WHITE GULL .

THE GREAT TERN

THE PURPLE GALLINULE .

THE GREAT NORTHERN DIVER, OR LOON .
THE BLACK-HEADED GULL

THE^EIDER DUCK

THE CANADA GOOSE ....
THE SKUA GULL

xiii

PAGE

99

101

105

111

118

119

122

125

127

131

137

139

148

151

152

154

155
159
161
167
169
175

XIV

CONTENTS,

THE WOODCOCK
THE GREAT AUK .
THE SNIPE
THE CAROLINA RAIL
THE RUFE

. 178
183
. 184
189
. 196

THE

BOOK OF BIRDS.

THE CONDOR, {Sarcoramphm gryphus.')

The first order of birds, Raptor es, includes Vultures,
Falcons, and Owls. They are distinguished by a strong
curved bill, fitted for tearing flesh, having on each side
towards the end a projection, like a tooth; the base is fre-
quently covered with a naked membrane, called a cere;
the legs are short, and the claws sharp-pointed and con-
siderably curved. It is a remarkable fact that the females
of birds of prey, unlike those of the other orders, are rather
larger and more powerful than the males.

The Vultures generally have no feathers on the head and
upper- part of the neck, a peculiarity which enables them
to feed more easily on carrion, which is their favourite
food. Of these the most remarkable is the Condor. Mr.
Nuttall says that the Condor derives its name from an
Indian word which alludes to its supposed sagacious scent,

22

THE CONDOR.

It inhabits the whole chain of the Andes of Mexico, Pern,
Chili, and Patagonia to the Straits of Magellan, and, on the
authority of Lewis and Clarke, they are sometimes seen in
the range of the Rocky Mountains, towards the sources of
the Missouri. Their peculiar residence is the great chain
of the high Andes, where they associate three or four together
upon the points of cliffs without either fearing or injuring
men, so that they may be approached within four yards with-
out showing alarm, or making on their part any attempt at
attack. Hardly an instance is really known of their even
assaulting an infant, though some credulous naturalists,
with the exaggerating privilege of travellers, have given
accounts of their killing young persons of ten or twelve years
of age. Their ability for such rapine is not to be doubted,
but their natural cowardice forbids the attempt. At the
same time, it is not uncommon to see them follow and hover
around a young bull until they have torn out his eyes and
tongue.

A pair of Condors will not only in this way attack the
deer of the Andes, the puma or American lion (our
panther), the vicogne, and the llama (or American camel),
but also the wild heifer. They will pursue it for a long
time, occasionally wounding it with their bill and claws, until
the unfortunate animal, now stifled and overcome with
fatigue, extends its tongue and groans ; on which occasion
the Condor seizes this member, being a very tender and
favorite morsel, and tears out the eyes of his prey, which at

THE CONDOR.

23

length falls prostrate to the earth and slowly expires. The
Condor then gorges himself; and rests in stupidity, and
almost gluttonous inebriation, perched upon the highest
neighbouring rocks. The formidable hunter, now loaded with
his meal, may be driven about without his attempting to
fly ; and in this state the Indians sometimes pursue them
with the lasso or noose, and easily take them captive. Thus
restrained, the Condor makes extraordinary efforts to rise
into the air ; but fatigued by the attempt, he begins to
disgorge himself- freely, an effort he appears to assist by
lengthening and shortening the neck, and bringing forward
the sheath of his beak. They will approach dwellings when
allured by the scent of food ; and a dead animal will draw
down a crowd of these gluttons, where none at the time are
at all visible ; they tear and eat with the greatest voracity,
pushing sometimes with their feet, and flapping their
wings.

They make no nest, but deposit their eggs upon the naked
rock ; these are two, wholly white, and three or four inches
in length. It is said that the female remains with her
young for the space of a year. The young Condor has no
feathers. His body, for several months, is covered only
with a very fine down or whitish frizzled hair, which
resembles that of young owls. This down disfigures the
young bird so much, that in this state it appears almost as
large as an adult.

The size of the Condor has been greatly exaggerated. It

24

THE CONDOR.

seldom exceeds three feet in length and nine and a half
feet in extent.* The tail one foot two inches. The
bill is straight and hooked at the point ; the plumage is white
in front, everywhere else of a brownish gray ; head bare of
feathers and covered with hard wrinkled skin, scattered over
with blackish hairs, and it has a collar of white silky down
between the bare and the feathered part of the neck. The
feet are stout, and the nails long and crooked.

ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES.

Sir Francis Head, in his gallop across the Pampas, and
his visit to the Andes, frequently encountered Condors. He
relates the account of a struggle between one of his Cornish
miners and a Condor gorged with food, and therefore not in
the best state for a fray. The man began by grasping the
bird round the neck, which he tried to break ; but the bird,
roused by the unceremonious attack, struggled so violently
as to defeat the plan ; nor, after an hour’s struggling, though
the miner brought away several of the wing-feathers in
token of victory, does it appear that the bird was des-
patched.

The Condor is not only captured with the lasso, but he is
taken by various traps and stratagems. According to Mr.
Darwin, the Chilenos are in the habit of marking the trees

* The term extent , applied to the description of birds, means the
distance from tip to tip of the extended wings.

THE TURKEY -BUZZARD.

25

in which they roost, frequently to the number of five or six
together, and then at night climbing up and noosing them.
They are such heavy sleepers that this is not a difficult
task. Lieutenant Maw saw the Condor’s quill used as a
pen in the Cordillera.

THE TURKEY-BUZZARD. (Jultur aura.)

There are many species of Vultures distributed over the
various parts of the world, chiefly in the warmer countries,
where they are considered very serviceable in consuming
the carcasses of dead animals, which would otherwise taint
the air. The King Vulture, found in South America and
Mexico, and the California Vulture, found on our western
coast, are among the American species; but of these the
most common, and therefore the most interesting, is the
Turkey-Buzzard, which abounds in our Southern States and
in the West Indies, where they are commonly protected for
their services as scavengers of carrion. In the winter they
generally seek out warmth and shelter, hovering often like
grim and boding spectres in the suburbs, and on the roofs
and chimneys of the houses around the cities of the South-
ern States.

Mr. Nuttall describes the Turkey-Buzzard as follows :

The Turkey Vulture is about two and a half feet in

2

26

THE WASHINGTON EAGLE.

length, and six in breadth. Eyes dark or reddish-hazel.
The head and neck for about an inch and a half below the
ears, furnished with a reddish wrinkled skin, and some
tints of blue, sprinkled with, short black hairs. From the
hind-head to the neck-feathers the space is covered with a
black down. The fore-part of the neck is bare to the
breast-bone. The plumage of the neck is large and tumid,
and, with that of the back and shoulders, nearly black;
almost all the rest of the body is of the same colour, in
parts inclining to brown. Third primary longest. The
wings extend to the end of the tail. The upper plumage is
generally glossed with green and bronze, having purplish
reflections. Legs feathered to the knees; the feet some-
what webbed. The bill nearly white, often tipped with
bright olive .green. Weight from four and a half to five
pounds.

WASHINGTON EAGLE. (Falco Washing tonii.)

This splendid bird is found in the mountain regions of
Kentucky. It is the largest of all the Eagle tribe. Its
length is three feet seven inches ; extent of wings ten feet
two inches; bill three inches and a quarter. Length of
wing when folded thirty-two inches ; length of tail fifteen
inches ; middle claw four inches and three-quarters ; hind

THE WASHINGTON EAGLE.

27

claw two inches and a half. The upper parts of the body
are dark, shining, coppery-brown ; throat, front, and breast,
rich bright cinnamon colour. The whole appearance of the
bird grand and majestic.

ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES.

Mr. Nuttall says, u It is to the indefatigable Audubon,
that we owe the distinct notice and description of this noble
Eagle, which first drew his attention while voyaging far up
the Mississippi, in the month of February, 1814. At length,
he had the satisfaction of discovering its eyry in the high
cliffs of Green River in Kentucky, near to its junction with
the Ohio ; two young were discovered loudly hissing from a
fissure in the rocks, on the approach of the male, from whom
they received a fish. The female now also came, and with
solicitous alarm for the safety of her young, gave a loud
scream, dropped the food she had brought, and hovering
over the molesting party, kept up a growling and threaten-
ing cry by way of intimidation ; and, in fact, as our disap-
pointed naturalist soon discovered, she from this time
forsook the spot, and found means to convey away her
young. The discoverer considers the species as rare ; indeed,
its principal residence appears to be in the northern parts
of the continent, particularly the rocky solitudes around the
great north-western lakes, where it can at all times collect
its finny prey, and rear its young without the dread of man.
In the winter season, about January and February, as well

28

THE WASHINGTON EAGLE.

as at a later period of the spring, these birds are occasion-
ally seen in this vicinity,* rendered perhaps bolder and
more familiar by want, as the prevalence of the ice and
cold, at this season, drives them to the necessity of wander-
ing further than usual in search of food. At this early
period, Audubon observed indications of the approach of the
breeding season. They are sometimes seen contending in
the air, so that one of the antagonists will suddenly drop
many feet downwards as if wounded or alarmed. My
friend, Dr. Hayward of Boston, had in his possession one
of these fine docile Eagles for a considerable time; but
desirous of devoting it to the then Linnseum Museum, he
attempted to poison it, by corrosive sublimate of mercury;
several times, however, doses even of two drams were given
to it concealed in fish, without producing any injurious
effect on its health.

“The Washington Eagle, bold and vigorous, disdains
the piratical habits of the Bald Eagle, and invariably
obtains his own sustenance without molesting the osprey.
The circles he describes in his flight are wider than those
of the White-headed Eagle ; he also flies nearer to the land
or the surface of the water ; and when about to dive for his
prey, he descends in circuitous, spiral rounds, as if to check
the retreat of the fish, on which he darts only when within
the distance of a few yards. When his prey is obtained,

* Cambridge, Mass.

THE BALD EAGLE. 29

he flies out at a low elevation to a considerable distance to
enjoy his repast at leisure.

“ The quantity of food consumed by this enormous bird
is very great, according to the account of those who have
had them in confinement. Mr. Audubon's male bird
weighed fourteen and a half pounds avoirdupois. One in a
small museum in Philadelphia (according to the account of
my friend Mr. C. Pickering), also a male, weighed much
more, by which difference it would appear that they are
capable of becoming exceedingly fat ; for the length of this
bird was about the same as that of Audubon, three feet six
or seven inches. The width, however, was only about seven
feet, agreeing pretty nearly with a specimen now in the
New England Museum. The male of the Golden Eagle,
the largest hitherto known, is seldom more than three feet
long."

THE WHITE-HEADED, OP BALD EAGLE.

(Halimtus leucocephalus .)

This bird is about three feet long, and seven feet broad
from tip to tip of the wings. The bill resembles that of
the golden eagle, and from the chin hang some small
hairy feathers like a beard. As it is found alike in regions
of excessive cold and in the torrid zone, it is provided for

30

TIIE BALD EAGLE.

enduring rapid changes of temperament, and its whole body
is clothed under the feathers with a kind of down, white
and soft like that of the swan. This bird builds its nest
on some romantic cliff by the sea-shore, or on the bank of
some river or lake, and feeds almost entirely upon fish.

It is generally regarded by our countrymen with pecu-
liar respect, as the chosen emblem of our native land.
The great cataract of Niagara is mentioned as one of its
favourite places of resort, not merely as a fishing station,
where it is enabled to satiate its hunger upon its most con-
genial food, but also in consequence of the vast quantity of
four-footed beasts, which unwarily venturing into the stream
above, are borne away by the torrent, and precipitated down
those tremendous falls.

High o’er the watery uproar silent seen,

Sailing sedate in majesty serene,

Now ’midst the pillar’d spray sublimely lost,

And now emerging, down the rapids toss’d,

Glides the Bald Eagle, gazing calm and slow
O’er all the horrors of the scene below ;

Intent alone to sate himself with blood,

From the torn victims of the raging flood.

The number of birds of prey of various kinds, which
assemble at the foot of the rocks to glut themselves upon
the banquet thus provided for them, is said to be incredibly
great, but they are all compelled to give place to the Eagle
when he deigns to feed on dead animals; and the crow and

THE FALCON.

31

the vulture submit without a struggle to the exercise of
that tyranny, which they know it would be in vain to resist.

ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES.

“We have ourselves,” says Wilson, “seen the Bald
Eagle, while seated on the dead carcass of a horse, keep a
whole flock of vultures at a respectful distance, until he had
fully sated his own appetite and he adds another instance,
in which many thousands of tree squirrels having been
drowned, in one of their migrations, in attempting to pass
the Ohio, and having furnished for some length of time a
rich banquet to the vultures, the sudden appearance among
them of the Bald Eagle at once put a stop to their festivi-
ties, and drove them to a distance from their prey, of
which the Eagle kept sole possession for several successive
days.

THE FALCON. ( Falco communis.')

The Falcon is a predaceous bird, of which there are
several species. The Gerfalcon is the largest, and it is
found in the northern parts of Europe ; and, next to the
eagle, it is the most formidable, the most active, and the
most intrepid of all voracious birds, and is the dearest and
most esteemed for falconry. The bill is crooked and yel-

32

THE FALCON.

low ; the irides of the eye dusky ; and the whole plumage
of a whitish hue, marked with dark lines on the breast, and
dusky spots on the back.

The Peregrine Falcon , which is the most common kind,
is as large as the moor buzzard. The bill is blue at the
base, and black at the point; the head, back, scapulars,
and coverts of the wings are barred with deep black and
blue; the throat, neck, and upper part of the breast are
white, tinged with yellow ; the bottom of the breast, belly,
and thighs are of a grayish white ; and the tail is black
and blue.

Wilson enumerates no less than ten varieties, dependent
chiefly upon age, sex, and country. It is found, more or
less abundantly, throughout the whole of Europe, princi-
pally in the mountain districts in North, and probably
South America, and in New Holland, dwelling in the clefts
of rocks, especially such as are exposed to the mid-day sun.
It breeds upon the cliffs in several parts of England, but
appears to be more common in Scotland and Wales. Its
food consists principally of small birds ; but it scruples not
to attack the larger species, and sometimes gives battle
even to the kite.

Falcons rarely take their prey upon the ground, like the
more ignoble birds of the class to which they belong ; but
pounce upon it from aloft, in a directly perpendicular
descent as it flies through the air, bear it downwards by the
united impulse of the strength and rapidity of their attack,

THE FALCON.

33

and sticking their talons into its flesh, carry it off in tri-
umph to the place of their retreat. Like most predatory
animals, they are stimulated to action by the pressure of
hunger alone, and remain inactive and almost motionless
while the process of digestion is going on, and until the
renewed cravings of their appetite stimulate them to fur-
ther exertion.

In different stages of its growth, the Peregrine Falcon
has been known by various English names. Its proper
appellation among falconers is the Slight Falcon, the term
Falcon G-entle being equally applicable to all the species
when rendered manageable. In the immature state, this
Falcon ia also called a Red Hawk, from the prevailing
colour of its plumage. The male is called a Tiercel, to dis-
tinguish it from the female, which, in the Falcon tribe, is
most commonly one-third larger than the male.

ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES.

In China there is said to be a variety which is mottled
with brown and yellow. These birds are said to be used
by the emperor of China in his sporting excursions, when
he is usually attended by his great falconer, and a thousand
of inferior rank. Every bird has a silver plate fastened to
its foot, with the nam£ of the falconer who has the charge
of it, that, in case it should be lost, it may be restored to
the proper person ; but if it should not be found, the name
is delivered to another officer, called the guardian of

34

THE FALCON.

lost birds, who, to make his situation known, erects his
standard in a conspicuous place among the army of hunters.

In Syria, also, there is a variety of the Gentle Falcon,
which the inhabitants call Shaheen, and which is of so
fierce and courageous a disposition, that it will attack any
bird, however large or powerful, which presents itself.
“Were there not,” says Dr. Russel, in his account of
Aleppo, “ several gentlemen now in England to bear 'wit-
ness to the fact, I should hardly venture to assert that,
with this bird, which is about the size of a pigeon, the
inhabitants sometimes take large eagles.

“ This Hawk was in former times taught to seize the eagle
under the pinion, and thus depriving him of the use of one
wing, both birds fell to the ground together ; but the pre-
sent mode is to teach the Hawk to fix on the back, between
the wings, which has the same effect, only that the bird
tumbling down more slowly, the falconer has more time to
come to his Hawk's assistance ; but in either case, if he be
not very expeditious, the Falcon is inevitably destroyed.

“I never saw the Shaheen fly at eagles, that sport having
been disused before my time ; but I have often seen him
take herons and storks. The Hawk, when thrown off, flies
for some time in a horizontal line, not six feet from the
ground; then mounting perpendicularly, with astonishing
swiftness, he seizes his prey under the wing, and both toge-
ther come tumbling to the ground.”

THE OSPREY.

35

THE OSPREY, OR FISHING HAWK.

(FalcOj or Pandion Halisetus .)

True to the season, o’er our sea-beat shore,

The sailing Osprey high is seen to soar
With broad unmoving wing ; and circling slow,

Marks each loose straggler in the deep below ;

Sweeps down like lightning, plunges with a roar,

And bears his struggling victim to the shore.

This bird is always found on the sea-shore, or near
rivers or lakes, as it feeds entirely on fish. It is common
in Great Britain, and also in America, where large colonies
are found of it, the birds living together like rooks. “ When
looking out for its prey,” says Hr. Richardson, “it sails
with great care and elegance, in undulating and curved
lines” at a considerable height above the water, till it per-
ceives its prey, when it pounces down upon it. It seizes
the fish with its claws, sometimes scarcely appearing to dip
its feet in the water, and at other times plunging entirely
under the surface with force sufficient to throw up a con-
siderable spray. It emerges again, however, so speedily, as
to render it evident that it does not attack fish swimming
at any great depth.”

The Osprey builds a large nest either on trees or rocks,
and lays two or three eggs, which have a reddish tinge, and
are spotted with brown at the larger end. The old birds
feed the young ones even after they have left the nest, and
only rear one brood in the year.

36

THE GOSHAWK.

AMEKICAN GOSHAWK. — (Astur atricapillus .)

After the eagles and falcons, come the Hawks, which are
similar in appearance, but smaller. They, as well as some
of the falcons, are famous for having been trained to use in
the chase. In the feudal times hawking was the favourite
amusement of kings and nobles. We have never heard of
its being practised in our country, although it is still com-
mon in Persia, and sometimes, though rarely, there are
hawking parties on the continent of Europe.

The American Goshawk is twenty-one inches long ; extent
of wings thirty-seven inches. Its colour is dark ash, tinged
with brown. Our species is related to a European one,
which extends over the northern countries of the Old World.
It is rare, migrating to the south in winter.

ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES.

In Mr. NuttalFs Ornithology we find the following inte-
resting particulars concerning this bird :

On the 26th of October, 1880, I received one of these
birds from the proprietor of Fresh Pond Hotel, in the
moult, having the stomach crammed with moles and mice,
and it was shot in the act of devouring a pigeon.

The Goshawk was held in considerable esteem for fal-
conry, and, according to Bell, was employed for this amuse-
ment by the emperor of China, who moved sometimes to
these excursions in great state, often bearing a hawk on his

THE GOSHAWK.

37

hand, to let fly at any game that might he raised ; which
was usually pheasants, partridges, quails, or cranes. In
1269, Marco Paulo witnessed this diversion of the emperor,
which probably had existed for many ages previous. The
falconers distinguished these birds of sport into two classes,
namely, those of falconry properly so called, and those of
hawking ; and in this second and inferior class were included
the Groshawk, the Sparrow-hawk, Buzzard, and Harpy.
This species does not soar so high as the longer-winged
Hawks, and darts upon its quarry by a side glance, not by
a direct descent, like the true falcon. They were caught
in nets baited with live pigeons, and reduced to obedience
by the same system of privation and discipline as the falcon.

A pair of these birds were kept for a long time in a cage
by Buffon ; he remarks, that the female was at least a third
larger than the male, and the wings, when closed, did not
reach within six inches of the end of the tail. The male,
though smaller, was much more fierce and un tameable. They
often fought with their claws, but seldom used the bill for
any other purpose than tearing their food. If this consisted
of birds, they were plucked as neatly as by the hand of the
poulterer ; but mice were swallowed whole, and the hair and
skin, and other indigestible parts, after the manner of the
genus, were discharged from the mouth rolled up in little
balls. Its cry was raucous, and terminated by sharp, reite-
rated, piercing notes, the more disagreeable the oftener they
were repeated, and the cage could never be approached with-

38

THE HAWK OWL.

out exciting violent gestures and screams. Though of dif-
ferent sexes, and confined to the same cage, they contracted
no friendship for each other which might soothe their impri-
sonment, and finally, to end the dismal picture, the female,
in a fit of indiscriminate rage and violence, murdered her
mate in the silence of the night, when all the other feathered
race were wrapped in repose. Indeed their dispositions are
so furious, that a Goshawk, left with any other falcons,
soon effects the destruction of the whole. Their ordinary
food is young rabbits, squirrels, mice, moles, young geese,
pigeons, and small birds, and, with a cannibal appetite, they
sometimes even prey upon the young of their own species.
They construct their nests in the highest trees, and lay from
two to four eggs of a bluish-white, marked with lines and
spots of brown. The egg of our bird, according to Audu-
bon, is without spots.

%

THE HAWK OWL. — (Strix funerea.)

This remarkable species, says Mr. Nuttall, forming a con-
necting link with the preceding genus of the Hawks, is
nearly confined to the arctic wilds of both continents, being
frequent in Siberia and the fur countries from Hudson’s
Bay to the Pacific. A few stragglers, now and then, at dis-
tant intervals, and in the depths of winter, penetrate on the

... .'V-

THE GREAT HORNED OWL.

39

one side into the northern parts of the United States; and,
on the other, they occasionally appear in Germany, and more
rarely in France. At Hudson's Bay they are observed by
day flying high, and preying on the white grouse and other
birds, sometimes even attending the hunter like a falcon,
and boldly taking up the wounded game as it flutters on the
ground. They are also said to feed on mice and insects,
and (according to Meyer) they nest upon trees, laying two
white eggs. They are said to be constant attendants on the
ptarmigans in their spring migrations towards the north;
and are observed to hover round the camp-fires of the na-
tives, in quest probably of any offal or rejected game.

GREAT HORNED OWL. — (Bubo Virginiana .)

This noted and formidable Owl is found in almost every
quarter of the United States. His favourite residence, how-
ever, is in the dark solitudes of deep swamps, covered with
a growth of gigantic timber ; and here, as soon as evening
draws on, and mankind retire to rest, he sends forth such
sounds as seem scarcely to belong to this world, startling
the solitary pilgrim as he slumbers by his forest fire,

Making night hideous.

Along the mountainous shores of the Ohio, and amidst the

40

THE GREAT HORNED OWL

deep forests of Indiana, alone, and reposing in the woods,
this ghostly watchman has frequently warned the traveller of
the approach of morning, and amused him with his singular
exclamations, sometimes sweeping down and around the fire,
uttering a loud and sudden Waugh 0 ! Waugh 0 ! sufficient
to have alarmed a whole garrison. He has other nocturnal
solos, no less Melodious, one of which very strikingly resem-
bles the half-suppressed screams of a person suffocating, or
throttled, and cannot fail of being exceedingly entertaining
to a lonely, benighted traveller, in the midst of an Indian
wilderness !

This species inhabits the country round Hudson's Bay ;
and according to Pennant, who considers it a mere variety
of the Eagle Owl ( Strix bubo ) of Europe, is found in Kamt-
schatka; extends even to the arctic regions, where it is
often found white ; and occurs as low as Astrakan. It has
also been seen white in the United States; but this has
doubtless been owing to disease or natural defect, and not
to climate.

It preys on young rabbits, squirrels, rats, mice, partridges,
and small birds of various kinds.

ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES.

The Great Horned Owl is famous for his depredations on
the poultry-yard. A very large one, who had his wing
broken by a shot while on a foraging expedition of this

THE GREAT HORNED OWL. 41

kind about a farm-house, was captured and kept for several
days, and at length disappeared, no one knew whither.

Almost every day after this, hens and chickens also dis-
appeared, one by one, in an unaccountable manner, till in
eight or ten days very few were left remaining. The fox,
the minx, and weasel, were alternately the reputed authors
of this mischief, until one morning, the olcMfedy herself,
rising before day to bake, in passing towards the oven,
surprised her late prisoner, the Owl, regaling himself on
the body of a newly killed hen ! The thief instantly made
for his hole under the house, from whence the enraged
matron soon dislodged him with the brush-handle, and
without mercy despatched him. In this snug retreat were
found the greater part of the feathers, and many large frag-
ments, of her whole family of chickens.

There is something in the character of the Owl so recluse,
solitary, and mysterious, something so discordant in the
tones of its voice, heard only amid the silence and gloom
of night, and in the most lonely and sequestered situations,
as to have strongly impressed the minds of mankind in
general with sensations of awe and abhorrence of the whole
tribe. The poets have indulged freely in this general
prejudice; and in their descriptions and delineations of
midnight storms, and gloomy scenes of nature, the Owl
is generally introduced to heighten the horror of the pic-
ture.

■ Ignorance and superstition, in all ages, and in all countries,

3

42

THE GREAT HORNED OWL.

listen to the voiee of the Owl, and even contemplate its
physiognomy with feelings of disgust, and a kind of fearful
awe. The priests, or conjurers, among some of our Indian
nations, have taken advantage of the reverential horror for
this bird, and have adopted the Great Horned Oivly the
subject of the present account, as the symbol or emblem of
their office.«fc

u Among the Creeks,” says Mr. Bartram, in his Travels ,
p. 504, “ the junior priests, or students, constantly wear a
white mantle, and have a Great Owl skin cased and stuffed
very ingeniously, so well executed as almost to appear like
the living bird, having large, sparkling glass beads or
buttons, fixed in the head for eyes. This insignia of wis-
dom and divination they wear sometimes as a crest on the
top of the head ; at other times the image sits on the arm,
or is borne on the hand. These bachelors are also distin-
guished from the other people by their taciturnity, grave
and solemn countenance, dignified step, and singing to
themselves songs or hymns in a low, sweet voice, as they
stroll about the town.”

Nothing is a more effectual cure for superstition than a
knowledge of the general laws and productions of nature ;
nor more forcibly leads our reflections to the first, great,
self-existent Cause of all, to whom our reverential awe is
then humbly devoted, and not to any of his dependent
creatures. With all the gloomy habits and ungracious
tones of the Owl, there is nothing in this bird supernatural

THE GREAT HORNED OWL.

43

or mysterious, or more than that of a simple bird of prey,
formed for feeding by night, like many other animals, and of
reposing by day. The harshness of its voice, occasioned by
the width and capacity of its throat, may be intended by
Heaven as an alarm and warning to the birds and animals
on which it preys, to secure themselves from danger. The
voices of all carnivorous birds and animals are also observed
to be harsh and hideous, probably for this very purpose.

The Great Horned Owl is not migratory, but remains
with us the whole year. During the day he slumbers in
the thick evergreens of deep swamps, or seeks shelter in
large hollow trees. He is very rarely seen abroad by day,
and never but when disturbed. In the month of May they
usually begin to build. The nest is generally placed in the
fork of a tall tree, and is constructed of sticks piled in con-
siderable quantities, lined with dry leaves and a few feathers.
Sometimes they choose a hollow tree ; and, in that case,
carry in but few materials. The female lays four eggs,
nearly as large as those of a hen^ almost globular, and of
a pure white. In one of these nests, after the young had
flown, were found the heads and bones of' two chickens, the
legs and head of the golden-winged woodpecker, and part
of the wings and feathers of several other birds. It is
generally conjectured that they hatch but once in the
season.

According to all authorities, Owls have been regarded as
objects of superstition ; and this has sometimes been taken

44

THE GREAT HORNED OWL.

advantage of by the well informed, for purposes far from
what ought to be the duty of a better education to inculcate.
None are more accessible to such superstitions than the
primitive natives of Ireland, and the north of Scotland. Dr.
Richardson thus relates an instance, which came to his own
knowledge, of the consequences arising from a visit of this
nocturnal wanderer : —

u A party of Scottish Highlanders, in the service of the
Hudson's Bay Company, happened, in a winter journey, to
encamp after nightfall in a dense clump of trees, whose dark
tops and lofty stems, the growth of more than one century,
gave a solemnity to the scene that strongly tended to excite
the superstitious feelings of the Highlanders. The effect was
heightened by the discovery of a tomb, which, with a natural
taste often exhibited by the Indians, had been placed in this
secluded spot. Our travellers, having finished their supper,
were trimming their fire preparatory to retiring to rest, when
the slow and dismal notes of the Horned Owl fell on the ear
with a startling nearness. None of them being acquainted
with the sound, they at once concluded, that so unearthly
a voice must be the moaning of the spirit of the departed,
whose repose they supposed they had disturbed, by inad-
vertently making a fire of some of the wood of which his
tomb had been constructed. They passed a tedious night
of fear, and, with the first dawn of day, hastily quitted the
ill-omened spot."

THE SWALLOW.

45

THE SWALLOW. ( Hirundo rustica .)

The second order of birds, Insessores , or Perching Birds,
includes an immense number of genera and species. We
shall notice the more interesting, without troubling our
readers with their numerous subdivisions. We commence
with the Swallow, as one of the most common.

Swallows are easily distinguished from all other birds,
not only by their general structure, but by their twittering
note and mode of flying, or rather darting from place to
place.

They appear in the temperate regions in April, and build-
ing in some out-house, or in part of a human dwelling, they
lay their eggs and hatch their young. About August
they disappear, and do not return till the following spring.
Swallows kept in a cage moult about Christmas, and seldom
live till spring.

There are several species of the Swallow : the general
characters, a small beak, but large wide mouth, for the pur-
pose of swallowing flying insects, their natural food ; and
long forked tail and extensive wings, to enable them to
pursue their prey, belong to all of them. The common
house Swallow builds under the eaves of houses, or in
chimneys, near their top : the Martin also builds under
eaves, and very commonly against the upper corner or side
of our very windows, and seems not afraid at the sight of
man, yet it cannot be tamed, or even kept long in a cage.

46

THE SWALLOW.

The nature of the Swallow’s nest is worthy our serious
observation : how the mud is extracted from the sea-shores,
rivers, or other watery places; how masoned and formed
into a solid building, strong enough to support a whole
family, and to face the u pelting storm,” are wonders which
ought to raise our mind to Him who bestowed that instinct
upon them.

ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTE.

It is related that a pair of Swallows built their nest for
two successive years on the handle of a pair of garden
shears, that were stuck up against the boards in an out-
house; and, therefore, must have had their nest spoiled
whenever the implement was wanted. And what is still
more strange, a bird of the same species built its nest on
the wings and body of an owl that happened to hang dead
and dry from the rafters of a barn, and so loose as to be
moved by every gust of wind. This owl, with the nest on
its wings, and with eggs in the nest, was taken to the
museum of Sir Ashton Lever as a curiosity. That gentle-
man, struck with the singularity of the sight, furnished the
person who brought it with a large shell, desiring him to
fix it just where the owl had hung. The man did so; and
in the following year a pair of Swallows, probably the same,
built their nest in the shell, and laid eggs.

THE BANK SWALLOW.

47

THE CHIMNEY SWALLOW.

The Chimney Swallow is on the head; neck, back, and
rump, of a shining black colour, with purple gloss and
sometimes with a blue shade ; the throat and neck are of
the same colour; the breast and belly are white, with a
dash of red. The tail is forked, and consists of twelve
feathers. The wings are of the same colour with the back.
Swallows feed upon flies, worms, and insects; and gene-
rally hunt their prey on the wing.

THE BANK SWALLOW.

This appears (says Mr. Wilson) to be the most sociable
with its kind, and the least intimate with man, of all our
Swallows; living together in large communities of some-
times three or four hundred. On the high sandy bank of
a river, quarry, or gravel-pit, at a foot or two from the sur-
face, they commonly scratch out holes for their nests,
running them in a horizontal direction to the depth of two
and sometimes three feet. Several of these holes are often
within a few inches of each other, and extend in various
strata along the front of the precipice, sometimes for eighty
or one hundred yards. At the extremity of this hole, a

48

THE BALTIMORE ORIOLE.

little fine, dry grass, with a few large, downy feathers, form
the bed on which their eggs, generally five in number, and
pure white, are deposited.

The young are hatched late in May; and here I have
taken notice of the common crow, in parties of four or
live, watching at the entrance of these holes, to seize the
first straggling young that should make its appearance.
From the clouds of Swallows that usually play round these
breeding-places, they remind one at a distance of a swarm
of bees.

The Bank Swallow arrives here earlier than either of the
preceding ; begins to build in April, and has commonly two
broods in the season. Their voice is a low mutter. They
are particularly fond of the shores of rivers, and, in several
places along the Ohio, they congregate in immense multi-
tudes.

BALTIMOBE OKIOLE. ( Oriolus Baltimore .)

This is a bird of passage, arriving in Pennsylvania, from
the south, about the beginning of May, and departing
towards the latter end of August, or beginning of September.
During migration, the flight of the Baltimore is high above
all the trees, and is straight and continuous ; it is mostly
performed during the day, as they are usually observed
alighting, always singly, about the setting of the sun, utter-

THE BALTIMORE ORIOLE. 49

ing a note or two, and darting into the lower branches to
feed, and afterwards to rest.

From the singularity of its colours, the construction of
its nest, and its preferring the apple-trees, weeping willows,
walnut and tulip-trees, adjoining the farm-house, to build
on, it is generally known, and, as usual, honoured with a
variety of names, such as Hang-nest, Hanging-Bird, Golden
Bobin, Fire-Bird (from the bright orange seen through the
green leaves, resembling a flash of fire), &c., but more
generally the Baltimore Bird, so named, as Catesby informs
us, from its colours, which are black and orange, being
those of' the arms or livery of Lord Baltimore, formerly
proprietary of Maryland.

Their principal food consists of caterpillars, beetles, and
bugs, particularly one of a brilliant glossy green, fragments
of which are almost always found in their stomach, and
sometimes these only.

The Baltimore inhabits North America from Canada to
Mexico, and is even found as far south as Brazil.

ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES.

There is nothing more remarkable (says Mr. Nuttall) in
the whole instinct of our Golden Bobin, than the ingenuity
displayed in the fabrication of its nest, which is, in fact, a
pendulous cylindric pouch of five to seven inches in depth,
usually suspended from near the extremities of the high,

50

THE BALTIMORE ORIOLE.

drooping branches of trees (such as the elm, the pear, or
apple-tree, wild cherry, weeping willow, tulip-tree, or but-
tonwood). It is begun by firmly fastening natural strings
of the flax of the silk weed, or swamp-hollyhock, or stout
artificial threads, round two or more forked twigs, corres-
ponding to the intended width and depth of the nest. With
the same materials, willow down, or any accidental ravel-
lings, strings, thread, sewing-silk, tow, or wool, that may be
lying near the neighbouring houses, or round the grafts of
trees, they interweave and fabricate a sort of coarse cloth
into the form intended ; towards the bottom of which they
place the real nest, made, chiefly of lint, wiry grass, horse
and cow hair, sometimes, in defect of hair, lining the inte-
rior with a mixture of slender strips of smooth vine bark,
and rarely with a few feathers, the whole being of a consi-
derable thickness, and more or less attached to the external
pouch. Over the top, the leaves, as they grow out, form a
verdant and agreeable canopy, defending the young from the
sun and rain. There is sometimes a considerable difference
in the manufacture of these nests, as well as in the materials
which enter into their composition. Both sexes seem to be
equally adepts at this sort of labour, and I have seen the
female alone perform the whole without any assistance, and
the male also complete this laborious task nearly without
the aid of his consort; who, however, in general, is the
principal worker. I have observed a nest made almost
wholly of tow, which was laid out for the convenience of a

THE BALTIMORE ORIOLE.

51

male bird ; who, with this aid, completed his labour in a very
short time, and frequently sung in a very ludicrous manner,
while his mouth was loaded with a mass larger than his
head. So eager are they to obtain fibrous materials, that
they will readily tug at, and even untie hard knots made of
tow. In Audubon's magnificent plates, a nest is represented
as formed outwardly of the long-moss ; where this abounds,
of course, the labour of obtaining materials must be greatly
abridged. The author likewise remarks, that the whole
fabric consists almost entirely of this material, loosely inter-
woven, without any warm lining, a labour which our inge-
nious artist seems aware would be superfluous in the warm
forests of the lower Mississippi. A female, which I observed
'attentively, carried off to her nest a piece of lamp-wick ten
or twelve feet long. This long string, and many other
shorter ones, were left hanging out for about a week before
both the ends were wattled into the sides of the nest. Some
other little birds, making use of similar materials, at times
twitched these flowing ends, and generally brought out the
busy Baltimore from her occupation in great anger.

The haste and eagerness of one of these airy architects,
which I accidentally observed on the banks of the Susque-
hanna, appeared likely to prove fatal to a busy female, who,
in weaving, got a loop round her neck, and no sooner was
she disengaged from this snare, than it was slipped round
her feet, and thus held her fast beyond the power of escape !
The male came frequently to the scene, now changed from

52

THE ROBIN.

that of joy and hope into despair, but seemed wholly inca-
pable of comprehending or relieving the distress of his mate.
In a second instance, I have been told that a female has
been observed dead in the like predicament.

THE ROBIN. ( Turdus migratorius.')

This well-known bird, being familiar to almost every-
body, will require but a short description. It measures
nine inches and a half in length ; the bill is strong, an inch
long, and of a full yellow, though sometimes black, or
dusky near the tip of the upper mandible ; the head, back
of the neck, and tail, is black ; the back and rump, an ash
colour; the wings are black, edged with light ash; the
inner tips of the two exterior tail-feathers are white ; three
small spots of white border the eye ; the throat and upper
part of the breast is black, the former streaked with white;
the whole of the rest of the breast, down as far as the
thighs, is of a dark orange ; belly and vent, white, slightly
waved with dusky ash ; legs, dark brown ; claws, black and
strong. The colours of the female are more of the light
ash, less deepened with black ; and the orange on the breast
is much paler, and more broadly skirted with white.

The name of this bird bespeaks him a bird of passage, as

THE ROBIN.

53

are all the different species of thrushes we have ; hut the
one we are now describing, being more unsettled, and con-
tinually roving about from one region to another, during
fall and winter, seems particularly entitled to the appella-
tion. Scarce a winter passes but innumerable thousands of
them are seen in the lower parts of the whole Atlantic
states, from New Hampshire to Carolina, particularly in
the neighbourhood of our towns; and, from the circum-
stance of their leaving, during that season, the country to
the north-west of the great range of the Alleghany, from
Maryland northward, it would appear that they not only
migrate from north to south, but from west to east, to avoid
the deep snows that generally prevail on these high regions
for at least four months in the year.

The Robin builds a large nest, often on an apple-tree,
plasters it in the inside with mud, and lines it with hay or
fine grass. The female lays five eggs, of a beautiful sea-
green. Their principal food is berries, worms, and cater-
pillars. Of the first he prefers those of the sour gum.
So fond are they of gum-berries, that, wherever there
is one of these trees covered with fruit, and flocks of
Robins in the neighbourhood, the sportsman need only
take his stand near it, load, take aim, and fire ; one flock
succeeding another, with little interruption, almost the
whole day : by this method, prodigious slaughter has been
made among them with little fatigue. When berries fail,
they disperse themselves over the fields, and along the

54

THE ROBIN.

fences, in search of worms and other insects. Sometimes
they will disappear for a week or two, and return again in
greater numbers than before ; at which time the cities pour
out their sportsmen by scores, and the markets are plenti-
fully supplied with them at a cheap rate.

ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES.

In January, 1807, two young men, in one excursion, shot
thirty dozen Robins. In the midst of such devastation,
which continued many weeks, and, by accounts, extended
from Massachusetts to Maryland, some humane person took
advantage of a circumstance common to these birds in
winter, to stop the general slaughter. The fruit called
poke-berries is a favourite repast with the Robin, after
they are mellowed by the frost. The juice of the berries
is of a beautiful crimson, and they are eaten in such quanti-
ties by these birds, that their whole stomachs are strongly
tinged with the same red colour.

A paragraph appeared in the public news papers, inti-
mating, that, from the great quantities of these berries
which the Robins had fed on, they had become unwhole-
some, and even dangerous food ; and that several persons
had suffered by eating of them. The strange appearance of
the bowels of the birds seemed to corroborate this account.
The demand for, and use of them, ceased almost instantly ;

THE NIGHTINGALE.

55

and motives of self-preservation produced at once what all
the pleadings of humanity could not effect.

When fat, they are in considerable esteem for the table,
and probably not inferior to the Turdi of the ancients,
which they bestowed so much pains on in feeding and fat-
tening. The young birds are frequently and easily raised,
bear the confinement of the cage, feed on bread, fruits, &c.,
sing well, readily learn to imitate parts of tunes, and are
very pleasant and cheerful domestics. In these I have
always observed (says Wilson) that the orange on the breast
is of a much deeper tint, often a dark mahogany or chestnut
colour owing, no doubt, to their food and confinement.

THE NIGHTINGALE. {Sylvia luscinia .)

All the birds we have hitherto described are American.
We now come to a bird of the Old World, celebrated by the
poets of all ages. It is thus described by an English
writer : —

The Nightingale has little to boast, if we consider its
plumage, which is of a pale tawny colour on the head and
back, dashed with a little shade of olive ; the breast and
upper part of the belly incline to a grayish tint, and the
lower part of the belly is almost white ; the exterior web

56

THE NIGHTINGALE.

of the quill-feathers is of a reddish brown ; the tail of a
dull red ; the legs and feet ash-coloured ; the irides hazel ;
and the eyes large, bright, and staring. It is hardly pos-
sible to give an idea of the extraordinary power which this
small bird possesses in its throat, as to extension of sound,
sweetness of tone, and versatility of notes. Its song is
composed of several musical passages, each of which does
not continue more than the third part of a minute ; but
they are so varied, the passing from one tone to another is
so fanciful and so rapid, and the melody so sweet and so
mellow, that the most consummate musician is pleasingly
led to a deep sense of admiration at hearing it. Sometimes
joyful and merry, it runs down the diapason with the
velocity of lightning, touching the treble and the bass nearly
at the same instant ; at other times, mournful and plaintive,
the unfortunate Philomela draws heavily her lengthened
notes, and breathes a delightful melancholy around. These
have the appearance of sorrowful sighs ; the other modula-
tions resemble the laughter of the happy. Solitary on the
twig of a small tree, and cautiously at a certain distance
from the nest, where the pledges of his love are treasured
under the fostering breast of his mate, the male fills con-
stantly the silent woods with his harmonious strains ; and
during the whole night entertains and repays his female for
the irksome duties of incubation. For the Nightingale not
only sings at intervals during the day, but he waits till the
blackbird and the thrush have uttered their evening call,

THE NIGHTINGALE.

57

even till the stock and ring doves have, by their soft mur-
murings, lulled each other to rest, and then he pours forth
his full tide of melody.

Listening Philomela deigns

To let them joy, and purposes, in thought
Elate, to make her night excel their day.

t Thomson.

It is a great subject of astonishment that so small a bird
should be endowed with such potent lungs. If the evening
is calm, it is supposed that its song may be heard above
half a mile. This bird, the ornament and charm of the
spring and early summer evenings, as it arrives in April,
and continues singing till June, disappears on a sudden
about September or October, when it leaves England to pass
the winter in the North of Africa and Syria. Its visits to
England are limited to certain counties, mostly in the
south and east; as, though it is plentiful in the neighbourhood
of London, and along the south coast in Sussex, Hampshire,
and Dorsetshire : it is not found in either Cornwall or
Wales. As soon as the young are hatched, the song of the
male bird ceases, and he only utters a harsh croak, by way
of giving alarm when any one approaches the nest. Night-
ingales are sometimes reared up, and doomed to the prison
of a cage ; in this state they sing ten months in the year,
though in their wild life they sing only as many weeks.
Bingley says that a caged Nightingale sings much more
sweetly than those which we hear abroad in the spring.

4

58 THE RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD.

THE RED- WINGED BLACKBIRD, OR TROOPIAL.

(, Sturnus predator ius.')

This bird is common in all parts of North America. He
is nine inches in length and fourteen in extent. The gene-
ral colour is glossy black, with a very splendid scarlet
marking, like a broad epaulette, on his shoulders. His
habits will be learned from the following

ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES.

Mr. Wilson calls this bird the Red-winged Starling, and
gives us from his own observation the following curious
particulars of his winter habits : —

The Red-winged Starlings, though generally migratory
in the states north of Maryland, are found during winter in
immense flocks, sometimes associated with the purple gra-
kles, and often by themselves, along the whole lower parts
of Virginia, both Carolinas, Georgia, and Louisiana, par-
ticularly near the sea-coast, and in the vicinity of large rice
and corn-fields.

In the months of January and February, while passing
through the former of these countries, I was frequently
entertained with the aerial evolutions of these great bodies
of Starlings. Sometimes they appeared driving about like
an enormous black cloud carried before the wind, varying
its shape every moment j sometimes suddenly rising from

THE RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD. 59

tlie fields around me with a noise like thunder; while the
glittering of innumerable wings of the brightest vermillion
amid the black cloud they formed, produced on these occa-
sions a very striking and splendid effect. Then, descending
like a torrent, and covering the branches of some detached
grove, or clump of trees, the whole congregated multitude com-
menced one general concert or chorus, that I have plainly dis-
tinguished at the distance of more than two miles, and, when
listened to at the intermediate space of about a quarter of a
mile, with a slight breeze of wind to swell and soften the
flow of its cadences, was to me grand, and even sublime.

The whole season of winter, that, with most birds, is
passed in struggling to sustain life in silent melancholy, is,
with the Red-wings, one continued carnival. The profuse
gleanings of the old rice, corn, and buckwheat-fields, supply
them with abundant food, at once ready and nutritious ; and
the intermediate time is spent either in aerial manoeuvres,
or in grand vocal performances, as if solicitous to supply
the absence of all the tuneful summer tribes, and to cheer
the dejected face of nature with their whole combined
powers of harmony.

From the same excellent authority we gather the follow-
ing particulars of the TroopiaFs ravages in the corn-fields : —

Before the beginning of September, the flocks have become
numerous and formidable; and the young ears of maize,
or Indian corn, being then in their soft, succulent, milky,
state, present a temptation that caunot be resisted. Rein-

60 THE RED -WINGED BLACKBIRD.

forced by numerous and daily flocks from all parts of the
interior, they pour down on the low countries in prodigious
multitudes. Here they are seen, like vast clouds, wheeling
and driving over the meadows and devoted corn-fields,
darkening the air with their numbers. Then commences
the work of destruction on the corn, the husks of which,
though composed of numerous envelopments of closely-
wrapped leaves, are soon completely or partially torn off;
while from all quarters myriads continue to pour down like
a tempest, blackening half an acre at a time ; and, if not
disturbed, repeat their depredations, till little remains but
the cob and the shrivelled skins of the grain ; what little is
left of the tender ear, being exposed to the rains and weather,
is generally much injured.

All the attacks and havoc made at this time among them
with the gun, and by the hawks, — several species of which
are their constant attendants, — has little effect on the
remainder. When the hawks make a sweep among them,
they suddenly open on all sides, but rarely in time to dis-
appoint them of their victims ; and, though repeatedly fired
at, with mortal effect, they only remove from one field to
an adjoining one, or to another quarter of the same enclosure.
From dawn to nearly sunset, this open and daring devasta-
tion is carried on, under the eye of the proprietor; and a
farmer, who has any considerable extent of corn, would
require half-a-dozen men at least, with guns, to guard it;
and even then, all their vigilance and activity would not

THE RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD. 61

prevent a good tithe of it from becoming the prey of the
Blackbirds. The Indians, who usually plant their corn in
one general field, keep the whole young boys of the village
all day patrolling round and among it; and each being fur-
nished with bow and arrows, with which they are very
expert, they generally contrive to destroy great numbers of
them.

It must, however, be observed, that this scene of pillage
is principally carried on in the low countries, not far from
the sea-coast, or near the extensive flats that border our
large rivers; and is also chiefly confined to the months
of August and September. After this period, the corn
having acquired its hard, shelly coat, and the seeds of the
reeds or wild oats, with a profusion of other plants, that
abound along the river shores, being now ripe, and in great
abundance, they present a new and more extensive field for
these marauding multitudes. The reeds also supply them
with convenient roosting places, being often in almost
unapproachable morasses; and thither they repair every
evening, from all quarters of the country.

In some places, however, when the reeds become dry,
advantage is taken of this circumstance, to destroy these
birds, by a party secretly approaching the place, under
cover of a dark night, setting fire to the reeds in several
places at once, which being soon enveloped in one general
flame, the uproar among the Blackbirds becomes universal ;
and, by the light of the conflagration, they are shot down

62

THE SKYLARK.

in vast numlbers; while hovering and screaming over the
place. Sometimes straw is used for the same purpose,
being previously strewed near the reeds and alder bushes,
where they are known to roost, which being instantly set
on fire, the consternation and havoc are prodigious ; and the
party return by day to pick up the slaughtered game.
About the first of November, they begin to move off towards
the south ; though, near the sea-coast, in the' states of New
Jersey and Delaware they continue long after that period.

THE SKYLARK. ( Alauda arvensis.')

One of the most celebrated of all the English birds is the
Skylark. His music being associated with the rural em-
ployments and pleasures of that enlightened and refined
nation, has occasioned his being described in rapturous
terms by their poets and novelists.

The Skylark is generally distinguished from most other
birds, by the long spur on his back toe, the earthy colour
of his feathers, and by singing as he mounts up in the air.
The common Skylark is not much bigger than the house-
sparrow. These birds generally make their nest in meadows
among the high grass, and the tint of their plumage resembles
so much that of the ground, that the body of the bird is
hardly distinguishable as it hops along.

THE SKYLARK.

63

The daisied lea lie loves, where tufts of grass
Luxuriant crown the ridge : there, with his mate,

He founds their lonely house, of withered herbs,

And coarsest spear-grass ; next the inner work,

With finer, and still finer fibres lays,

Rounding it curious with his speckled breast.

Grahame.

Larks breed thrice a year, in May, July, and August,
rearing their young in a short space of time.

ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES.

The instinctive warmth of attachment which the female
Skylark bears towards her own species, even when not her
nestling, is remarkable. “In the month of May,” says
Buffon, “ a young hen bird was brought to me, which was
not able to feed without assistance. I caused her to be
reared ; and she was hardly fledged, when I received from
another place, a nest of three or four unfledged larks. She
took a strong liking to these new comers, which were but
little younger than herself; she tended them night and
day, cherished them beneath her wings, and fed them with
her bill. Nothing could interrupt her tender offices. If
the young ones were torn from her she flew to them as soon
as they were liberated, and would not think of effecting her
own escape, which she might have done a hundred times.
Her affection grew upon her; she neglected food and drink;
she at length required the same support as her adopted
offspring, and expired at last, consumed with maternal soli-

64

THE CARDINAL BIRD.

citude. None of the young ones long survived her. They
died one after another ; so essential were her cares, which
were equally tender and judicious.”

The Lark mounts almost perpendicularly, and by succes-
sive springs, into the air ; where it hovers at a vast height.
Its descent is in an oblique direction, unless threatened by
some ravenous bird of prey, or attracted by its mate ; when
it drops to the ground like a stone. On its first leaving
the earth, its notes are feeble and interrupted; but, as it
rises, these gradually swell to their full tone. As the Lark’s
flight is always at sun-rise, there is something in the scenery
that renders the music of the lark peculiarly delightful : the
opening morning, and the landscape just gilded by the rays
of the returning sun, and the beauty of the surrounding
objects, all contribute to heighten our relish for its pleasing
song.

THE CARDINAL BIKD. ( Cardinalis Virginianus.')

This is one of our most common cage birds ; and is very
generally known, not only in North America, but even in
Europe, numbers of them having been carried over both to
France and England, in which last country they are usually
called Virginia Nightingales. To this name, Dr. Latham
observes, u they are fully entitled,” from the clearness and

THE CARDINAL BIRD.

65

variety of their notes, which, both in a wild and domestic
state, are very various and musical : many of them resemble
the high notes of a fife, and are nearly as loud. They are
in song from March to September, beginning at the first
appearance of dawn, and repeating a favourite stanza, or
passage, twenty or thirty times successively; sometimes,
with little intermission, for a whole morning together,
which, like a good story too often repeated, becomes at length
tiresome and insipid. But the sprightly figure and gaudy
plumage of the Bed-Bird, his vivacity, strength of voice, and
actual variety of note, and the little expense with which
he is kept, will always make him a favourite.

The Cardinal Bird is eight inches long, and eleven
in extent. The whole upper parts are a dusky red, except
the sides of the neck and the head, which, as well as
all the lower parts, are bright vermilion, and chin and front
black. The head is ornamented with a pointed crest, which
may be raised or lowered at pleasure. The beak is red,
thick and strong. The female is smaller, but nearly as
brilliant in plumage, and sings nearly as well as the male.

ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES.

The opinion which so generally prevails in England (says
Wilson) that the music of the groves and woods of America
is far inferior to that of Europe, I, who have a thousand
times listened to both, cannot admit to be correct. We
cannot with fairness draw a comparison between tho depth

66

THE CARDINAL BIRD

of the forest in America, and the cultivated fields of Eng-
land; because it is a well-known fact, that singing birds
seldom frequent the former in any country. But let
the latter places be compared with the like situations in
the United States, and the superiority of song, I am fully
persuaded, would justly belong to the western continent.
The few of our song birds that have visited Europe extort
admiration from the best judges. “The notes of the Car-
dinal Grosbeak,” says Latham, “ are almost equal to those
of the nightingale.” Yet these notes, clear and excellent
as they are, are far inferior to those of the wood thrush,
and even to those of the brown thrush, or thrasher. Our
inimitable mocking bird is also acknowledged, by them-
selves, to be fully equal to the song of the nightingale, “ in
its whole compass.” Yet these are not one tenth of the
number of our singing birds. Could these people be trans-
ported to the borders of our woods and settlements, in the
month of May, about half an hour before sunrise, such a
ravishing concert would greet their ear as they have no con-
ception of.

The males of the Cardinal Grosbeak, when confined
together in a cage, fight violently. On placing a looking-
glass before the cage, the gesticulations of the tenant are
truly laughable : yet with this he soon becomes so well
acquainted, that, in a short time, he takes no notice what-
ever of it; a pretty good proof that he has discovered the
true cause of the appearance to proceed from himself. They

THE MOCKING BIRD.

67

are hardy birds, easily kept, sing six or eight months in the
year, and are most lively in wet weather. They are
generally known by the names; Red-Bird, Virginia Red-
Bird, Virginia Nightingale, and Crested Red-Bird, to distin-
guish them from another beautiful species, the Scarlet
Tanager.

I do not know that any successful attempts have been
made to induce these birds to pair and breed in confinement ;
but I have no doubt of its practicability, by proper manage-
ment. Some months ago, I placed a young, unfledged
cow-bird, whose mother, like the cuckoo of Europe, aban-
dons her eggs and progeny to the mercy and management
of other smaller birds, in the same cage with a Red-Bird,
which fed and reared it with great tenderness. They both
continue to inhabit the same cage, and I have hopes that
the Red-Bird will finish his pupiFs education by teaching
him his song.

THE MOCKING BIRD. (Mimns Polyglottus .)

This splendid songster is not remarkable for the beauty
of his plumage. His general colour is ashy, whitish beneath,
tips of the wing-coverts and lateral tail-feathers white;
general form slender and graceful ; length nine inches and
a half, extent thirteen inches. He is found in various parts

68

THE MOCKING BIRD.

of America, from the Middle States to Brazil. His food
consists of insects, berries, and worms.

ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES.

Mr. Wilson, an enthusiastic admirer of the Mocking Bird,
thus describes his song : —

The Mocking Bird loses little of the power and energy
of his song by confinement. In his domesticated state,
when he commences his career of song, it is impossible to
stand by uninterested. He whistles for the dog, — Caesar
starts up, wags his tail, and runs to meet his master. He
squeaks out like a hurt chicken, — and the hen hurries
about with hanging wings, and bristled feathers, clucking
to protect its injured brood. The barking of the dog, the
mewing of the cat, the creaking of a passing wheelbarrow,
follow with great truth and rapidity. He repeats the tune
taught him by his master, though of considerable length,
fully and faithfully. He runs over the quiverings of the
canary, and the clear whistlings of the Virginia nightin-
gale, or red-bird, with such superior execution and effect,
that the mortified songsters feel their own inferiority, and
become altogether silent ; while he seems to triumph in their
defeat by redoubling his exertions.

Were it not to seem invidious in the eyes of foreigners, I
might, in this place, make a comparative statement between
the powers of the Mocking Bird, and the only bird, I believe,
in the world, worthy of being compared with him, — the

THE MOCKING BIRD.

69

European nightingale. This, however, I am unable to do
from my own observation, having never myself heard the
song of the latter; and, even if I had, perhaps something
might be laid to the score of partiality, which, as a faithful
biographer, I am anxious to avoid. I shall, therefore,
present the reader with the opinion of a distinguished English
naturalist and curious observer, on this subject, the Honour-
able Haines Barrington, who, at the time he made the com-
munication, was vice-president of the Boyal Society, to which
it was addressed.

“ It may not be improper here,” says this gentleman, “ to
consider whether the nightingale may not have a very
formidable competitor in the American Mocking Bird,
though almost all travellers agree, that the concert in the
European woods is superior to that of the other parts of the
globe.” eeI have happened, however, to hear the American
Mocking Bird, in great perfection, at Messrs. Yogels and
Scotts, in Love Lane, Eastcheap. This bird is believed to
be still living, and hath been in England these six years.
During the space of a minute, he imitated the woodlark,
chaffinch, blackbird, thrush, and sparrow. I was told also
that he would bark like a dog; so that the bird seems to
have no choice in his imitations, though his pipe comes
nearest to our nightingale of any bird I have yet met with.

u With regard to the original notes, however, of this bird,
we are still at a loss, as this can only be known by those
who are accurately acquainted with the song of the other'

70

THE CROW.

American birds. Kalm indeed informs us, that the natural
song is excellent; but this traveller seems not to have
been long enough in America to have distinguished what
were the genuine notes : with us, mimics do not often suc-
ceed but in imitations. I have little doubt, however, but
that this bird would be fully equal to the song of the
nightingale in its whole compass ; but then, from the atten-
tion which the Mocker pays to any other sort of disagreeable
noise, these capital notes would be always debased by a bad
mixture.”

THE CROW. ( Corvus Coronet)

Mr. Wilson considers our American Crow identical
with the European species. It is eighteen inches and a
half long, and three feet two inches in extent ; the colour
shining glossy blue-black ; bill and legs black. In other
particulars it agrees with the European Crow.

He is the most generally known and least beloved of all
our land birds; having (as Mr. Wilson observes) neither
melody of song, nor beauty of plumage, nor excellence of
flesh, nor civility of manners to recommend him ; on the
contrary, he is branded as a thief and a plunderer — a kind
of black-coated vagabond, who hovers over the fields of the
industrious, fattening on their labours, and, by his voracity,

THE CEO W.

71

often blasting tbeir expectations. Hated as he is by the
farmer, watched and persecuted by almost every bearer of a
gun, who all triumph in his destruction, had not Heaven
bestowed on him intelligence and sagacity far beyond com-
mon, there is reason to believe that the whole tribe (in
these parts at least) would long ago have ceased to exist.

It is in the month of May, and until the middle of J une,
that the Crow is most destructive to the corn-fields, digging
up the newly planted grains of maize, pulling up by the
roots those that have begun to vegetate, and thus frequently
obliging the farmer to replant, or lose the benefit of the
soil ; and this sometimes twice, and even three times, occa-
sioning a considerable additional expense, and inequality
of harvest. No mercy is now shown him. The myriads of
worms, moles, mice, caterpillars, grubs, and beetles, which
he has destroyed, are altogether overlooked on these occa-
sions. Detected in robbing the hens' nests, pulling up the
corn, and killing the young chickens, he is considered as
an outlaw, and sentenced to destruction. But the great
difficulty is, how to put this sentence in execution. In
vain the gunner skulks along the hedges and fences ; his
faithful sentinels, planted on some commanding point, raise
the alarm, and disappoint vengeance of its- object. The
coast again clear, he returns once more in silence, to finish
the repast he had begun. Sometimes he approaches the
farm-house by stealth, in search of young chickens, which
he is in the habit of snatching off, when he can elude the

72

THE CRO W.

vigilance of tlie mother hen, who often proves too formida-
ble for him.

ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES.

A few days ago (says Mr. Wilson), a Crow was observed
eagerly attempting to seize some young chickens in an
orchard, near the room where I write ; but these clustering
close round the hen, she resolutely defended them, drove
the Crow into an apple-tree, whither she instantly pursued
him with such spirit and intrepidity, that he was glad to
make a speedy retreat, and abandon his design.

The Crow himself sometimes falls a prey to the superior
strength and rapacity of the great owl, whose weapons of
offence are by far the more formidable of the two.

“ A few years ago,” says a correspondent of Mr. Wilson,
u I resided on the banks of the Hudson, about seven miles
from the city of New York. Not far from the place of my
residence was a pretty thick wood or swamp, in which great
numbers of Crows, who used to cross the river from the
opposite shore, were accustomed to roost. Returning home-
ward one afternoon, from a shooting excursion, I had occa-
sion to pass through this swamp. It was near sunset, and
troops of Crows were flying in all directions over my head.
While engaged in observing their flight, and endeavouring
to select from among them an object to shoot at, my ears
were suddenly assailed by the distressful cries of a Crow,
who was evidently struggling under the talons of a merci-

THE CROW.

73

less and rapacious enemy. I hastened to the spot whence
the sounds proceeded, and, to my great surprise, found a
Crow lying on the ground, just expiring, and, seated upon
the body of the yet warm and bleeding quarry, a large
brown owl , who was beginning to make a meal of the unfor-
tunate robber of corn-fields. Perceiving my approach, he
forsook his prey with evident reluctance, and flew into a
tree at a little distance, where he sat watching all my
movements, alternately regarding, with longing eyes, the
victim he had been forced to leave, and darting at me no
very friendly looks, that seemed to reproach me for having
deprived him of his expected regale.

u I confess that the scene before me was altogether novel
and surprising. I am but little conversant with natural
history ) but I had always understood, that the depredations
of the owl were confined to the smaller birds, and animals
of the lesser kind, such as mice, young rabbits, &c., and
that he obtained his prey rather by fraud and stratagem,
than by open rapacity and violence. I was the more con-
firmed in this belief, from the recollection of a passage in
Macbeth, which now forcibly recurred to my memory. The
courtiers of King Duncan are recounting to each other the
various prodigies that preceded his death, and one of them
relates to his wondering auditors, that

An eagle, towering in his pride of place,

Was by a morning owl hawked at and killed.

5

74

THE W II I P-P 0 0 R-W ILL.

But to resume my relation : That the owl was the mur-
derer of the unfortunate Crow, there could be no doubt.
No other bird of prey was in sight; I had not fired my gun
since I entered the wood ; nor heard any one else shoot :
besides, the unequivocal situation in which I found the
parties, would have been sufficient, before any ‘ twelve good
men and true/ or a jury of Crows, to have convicted him
of his guilt. It is proper to add, that I avenged the death
of the hapless Crow, by a well-aimed shot at the felonious
robber, that extended him breathless on the ground.”

THE WHIP-POOR-WILL. (Caprimulgus vociferus.^)

This celebrated bird is common in various parts of the
United States. Its name is derived from its notes, which
seem pretty plainly to articulate the words whip-poor-will ,
the first and last syllable being uttered with great emphasis,
and the whole in about a second to each repetition. It has
been sometimes confounded with the two other species of
the genus, the church-will’ s-widow and the night-hawk.
Mr. Wilson, however, has settled the question, by examin-
ing and accurately describing the different species. The
Whip-poor-will is nine inches long and nineteen in extent ;
the bill is blackish, a quarter of an inch long, much stronger

THE WHIP-POOR-WILL.

75

than that of the night-hawk, and bent at the point. The
month is very large, and beset on the sides with long
elastic bristles, which serve as feelers and prevent the
escape of the winged insects on which it feeds. Our
engraving shows its figure in flight, and its curious markings.

The Whip-poor-will is never seen during the day, unless
in circumstances such as have been described. Their food
appears to be large moths, grasshoppers, pismires, and such
insects as frequent the bark of old rotten and decaying tim-
ber. They are also expert in darting after winged insects.
They will sometimes skim in the dust, within a few feet of
a person, uttering a kind of low chatter as they pass. In
their migrations north, and on their return, they probably
stop a day or two at some of their former stages, and do
not advance in one continued flight.

ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTE.

The following little incident, narrated by Mr. Wilson,
illustrates at once a trait in the character of the bird, and
the gentle and humane disposition of the naturalist : —

In traversing the woods one day in the early part of
June, along the brow of a rocky declivity, a Whip-poor-
will rose from my feet, and fluttered along, sometimes
prostrating herself, and beating the ground with her wings,
as if just expiring. Aware of her purpose, I stood still,
and began to examine the space immediately around me for

76

THE CUCKOO.

the eggs or young, one or other of which I was certain
must be near. After a long search, to my mortification, I
could find neither; and was just going to abandon the spot,
when I perceived somewhat like a slight mouldiness among
the withered leaves, and, on stooping down, discovered it
to be a young Whip-poor-will, seemingly asleep, as its eye-
lids were nearly closed ; or perhaps this might only be to
protect its tender eyes from the glare of day. I sat down
by it on the leaves, and drew it as it then appeared. It
was probably not a week old. All the while I was thus
engaged, it neither moved its body, nor opened its eyes
more than half ; and I left it as I found it. After I had
walked about a quarter of a mile from the spot, recollecting
that I had left a pencil behind, I returned and found my
pencil, but the young bird was gone.

THE CUCKOO. ( Cuculus canorus.')

The third order of birds, Scansores , or Climbers, includes
some species which are very interesting. Of these we will
first notice the English Cuckoo. She is twelve inches in
length from the tip of the bill to the end of the tail ; yel-
low breast, with transverse lines; head, wings, and body
marked with black and tawny stripes, legs short and covered

THE CUCKOO.

77

with feathers. The curious part of this bird's history is
the fact that the female does not build a nest; but lays her
eggs in that of another bird, generally the sparrow.

The American Cuckoo, or Cow-bird, is quite different
in its habits from the European Cuckoo, as it builds> a nest
for its eggs, and hatches its young itself, like other birds.

On the 18th June, 1787, Dr. Jenner examined a nest of
a hedge-sparrow, which then contained a Cuckoo's and three
hedge-sparrow's eggs. On inspecting it the day following,
the bird had hatched; but the nest then contained only a
young Cuckoo and one young hedge-sparrow. The nest
was placed so near the extremity of a hedge, that he could
distinctly see what was going forward in it; and, to his
great astonishment, he saw the young Cuckoo, though so
lately hatched, in the act of turning out the young hedge-
sparrow.

The mode of accomplishing this was curious : the little
animal, with the assistance of its rump and wings, contrived
to get the bird upon its back, and making a lodgment for
its burden by elevating its elbows, climbed backward with
it up the side of the nest, till it reached the top ; where,
resting for a moment, it threw off its load with a jerk, and
quite disengaged it from the nest. After remaining a short
time in this situation, and feeling about with the extremities
of its wings, as if to be convinced that the business was pro-
perly executed, it dropped into the nest again.

Dr. Jenner made several experiments in different nests,

78

TIIE KINGFISHER.

by repeatedly putting in an egg to the young Cuckoo;
which he always found to be disposed of in a similar
manner.

THE KINGFISHER. (. Alcedo ispida.')

This bird is nearly as small as a common sparrow, but
the head and beak appear proportionally too big for the
body. The bright blue of the back and wings claims our
admiration, as it changes into deep purple or lively green,
according to the angles of light under which the bird pre-
sents itself to the eye. It is generally seen on the banks
of rivers, for the purpose of seizing small fish, on which it
subsists, and which it takes in amazing quantities, by
balancing itself at a distance above the water for a certain
time, and then darting on the fish with unerring aim. It
dives perpendicularly into the water, where it continues
several seconds, and then brings up the fish, which it car-
rier to the land, beats to death, and afterwards swallows.
When the bird cannot find a projecting bough, it sits on
some stone near the brink, or even on the gravel ; but the
moment it perceives the fish, it takes a spring upwards of
twelve or fifteen feet, and drops from that height upon its
prey.

V

THE TOUCAN. 79

THE GREEN WOODPECKER, (Ficus viridis,)

Receives his name from the facility with which he
pecks the insects from the chinks of trees and holes in the
bark. The bill is straight, strong, and angular at the end ;
and in most of the species is formed like a wedge, for the
purpose of piercing the trees. The nostrils are covered
with bristles. The tongue is very long, slender, cylindrical,
bony, hard, and jagged at the end. The toes are placed
two forward and two backward ; and the tail consists of ten
hard, stiff, and sharp-pointed feathers. A Woodpecker is
often seen hanging by his claws, and resting upon his
breast against the stem of a tree ; when, after darting, with
great strength and noise, his beak against the bark, he runs
round the tree with great alacrity, which manoeuvre has
made the country people suppose that he goes round to see
whether he has not pierced the tree through its trunk ;
though the fact is, the bird is in search of the insects, which
he hopes to have driven out by his blow.

THE TOUCAN, (Famphastos tucanus ,)

Is a native of South America, very conspicuous for the
magnitude and shape of his bill. It is about the size of

80

THE CAROLINA PARROT.

the magpie, but the beak alone is nearly as big as the rest
of the body; the head is large and strong, and the neck
short, in order the more easily to support the bulk of such
a beak. The head, neck, and wings are black ; the breast
shines with a most lovely saffron colour, with a certain red-
ness near the beginning ; the lower part of the body and
the thighs are of a most beautiful vermilion ; the tail is
black, but of a bright red at the end.

One of these birds that was kept in a cage was very fond
of fruit, which it he^ld for some time in its beak, touching
it with great delight with the tip of its feathery tongue, and
then tossing them into its throat by .a sudden upright jerk;
it also fed on birds and other small animals.

CAROLINA PARROT. ( Psittacus Carolinensis.')

Of one hundred and sixty-eight kinds of Parrots (says
Wilson) enumerated by writers as inhabiting the various
regions of the globe, this is the only species found native
within the territory of the United States. Our engraving
shows that this bird has a far more elegant form than the
imported parrots which we see in cage^. It is thirteen
inches long and twenty-one in extent; its forehead and
cheeks are orange red ; beyond this, for an inch and a half

THE CAROLINA PARROT.

81

down and round the neck, a rich and pure yellow ; shoulder
and bend of the wing, also edged with rich orange red. The
general colour of the rest of the plumage is a bright yel-
lowish, silky green, with light blue reflections ; feet a pale
flesh-colour; bill white, inclining to cream-colour. It is
found in the Southern and Western States.

ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES.

Mr. Wilson gives the following very lively account of the
captive state of one of these birds : —

Anxious to try the effects of education on one of those
which I had procured at Big Bone Lick, and which was
but slightly wounded in the wing, I fixed up a place for it
in the stern of my boat, and presented it with some cockle
burs, which it freely fed on in less than an hour after being
on board. The intermediate time between eating and
sleeping was occupied in gnawing the sticks that formed its
place of confinement, in order to make a practicable breach ;
which it repeatedly effected. When I abandoned the river,
and travelled by land, I wrapped it up closely in a silk
handkerchief, tying it tightly around, and carried it in my
pocket.

When I stopped for refreshment, I unbound my prisoner,
and gave it its allowance, which it generally despatched
with great dexterity, unhusking the seeds from the bur in
a twinkling ; in doing which, it always employed its left
foot to hold the bur, as did several others that I kept for

82

THE CAROLINA PARROT.

some time. I began to think that this might be peculiar
to the whole tribe, and that the whole were, if I may use
the expression, left-footed; but, by shooting a number
afterwards while engaged in eating mulberries, I found
sometimes the left, sometimes the right, foot stained with
the fruit, the other always clean ; from which, and the con-
stant practice of those I kept, it appears, that, like the
human species in the use of their hands, they do not prefer
one or the other indiscriminately, but are either left or
right-footed.

But to return to my prisoner : In recommitting it to
u durance vile,” we generally had a quarrel ; during which
it frequently paid me in kind for the wound I had inflicted,
and for depriving it of liberty, by cutting and almost dis-
abling several of my fingers with its sharp and powerful
bill. The path through the wilderness between Nashville
and Natchez is in some places bad beyond description.
There are dangerous creeks to swim, miles of morass to
struggle through, rendered almost as gloomy as night by a
prodigious growth of timber, and an underwood of canes
and other evergreens ; while the descent into these sluggish
streams is often ten or fifteen feet perpendicular, into a bed
of deep clay. In some of the worst of these places, where
I had, as it were, to fight my way through, the Paroquet
frequently escaped from my pocket, obliging me to dis-
mount and pursue it through the worst of the morass before
I could regain it. On these occasions, I was several times

THE CAROLINA PARROT, 83

tempted, to abandon it; but I persisted in bringing it
along.

When at nigbt I encamped in the woods, I placed it on
tbe baggage beside me, where it usually sat with great com
posure, dozing and gazing at the fire till morning. In thh
manner I carried it upwards of a thousand miles, in mj
pocket, where it was exposed all day to the jolting of th*
horse, but regularly liberated at meal-times and in thf
evening, at which it always expressed great satisfaction
In passing through the Chickasaw and Choctaw nations^
the Indians, wherever I stopped to feed, collected around
me, men, women, and children, laughing, and seeming
wonderfully amused with the novelty of my companion.
The Chickasaws called it in their language u Kelinicy
but when they heard me call it Poll, they soon repeated
the name; and wherever I chanced to stop among these
people, we soon became familiar with each other through
the medium of Poll.

On arriving at Mr. Dunbar's, below Natchez, I procured
a cage, and placed it under the piazza, where, by its call, it
soon attracted the passing flocks ; such is the attachment
they have for each other. Numerous parties frequently
alighted on the trees immediately above, keeping up a con-
stant conversation with the prisoner. One of these I
wounded slightly in the wing, and the pleasure Poll
expressed on meeting with this new companion was really
amusing. She crept close up to it as it hung on the side

84

THE CAROLINA PARROT.

of the cage ; chattered to it in a low tone of voice, as if
sympathizing in its misfortune; scratched about its head
and neck with her bill ; and both at night nestled as close
as possible to each other, sometimes Polks head being
thrust among the plumage of the other. On the death of
this companion, she appeared restless and inconsolable for
several days.

On reaching New Orleans, I placed a looking-glass beside
the place where she usually sat, and the instant she per-
ceived her image, all her former fondness seemed to return,
so that she could scarcely absent herself from it a moment.
It was evident that she was completely deceived. Always
when evening drew on, and often during the day, she laid
her head close to that of the image in the glass, and began
to doze with great composure and satisfaction. In this
short space she had learned to know her name ; to answer,
and come when called on ; to climb up my clothes, sit on
my shoulder, and eat from my mouth. I took her with me
to sea, determined to persevere in her education; but,
destined to another fate, poor Poll, having one morning,
about day-break, wrought her way through the cage, while
I was asleep, instantly flew overboard and perished in the
Gulf of Mexico.

THE PEACOCK.

85

THE PEACOCK. ( Pavo cristatus.')

The Gallinaceous birds ( Rasores ) form the fourth order,
which includes many of the domestic fowls, and others use-
ful to man. The Peacock is the most celebrated of the
order, the beauty of its plumage having rendered it a
favourite in all ages of the world ; indeed, there is scarcely
anything in nature that can vie with the transcendent lustre
of the Peacock’s feathers. The changing glory of his neck
eclipses the deep azure of ultramarine; and at the least
evolution, it assumes the green tint of the emerald, and the
purple hue of the amethyst. His head, which is small and
finely shaped, has several curious stripes of white and black
round the eyes, and is surmounted by an elegant plume, or
tuft of feathers, each of which is composed of a slender
stem and a small tuft at the top. Displayed with conscious
pride, and exposed under a variety of angles to the reflec-
tions of versatile light, the broad and variegated disks of
his tail, of which the neck, head, and breast of the bird
become the centre, claims our well merited admiration. By
an extraordinary mixture of the brightest colours, it displays
at once the richness of gold, and the paler tints of silver,
fringed with bronze-coloured edges, and surrounding eyc-
like spots of dark brown and sapphire. The female does
not share in the beauty of the cock, and her feathers are
generally of a light brown. She lays only a few eggs at a
time, and these at a distance of usually three or four days

86

THE TURKEY.

from each other; they are white and spotted, like the eggs
of the turkey. She sits from twenty-seven to thirty
days.

The loud screamings of the Peacock are worse than the
harsh croakings of the raven, and a sure prognostic of had
weather ; and his feet, more clumsy than those of the turkey,
make a sad contrast with the elegance of the rest.

THE TURKEY, (Meleagris Gallo-Pavo ,)

Was originally an inhabitant of America, whence he was
brought to Europe by some Jesuit missionaries, which ac-
counts for his being called a Jesuit in some parts of continental
Europe. Except the tuft on the head, which he does not
share with the peacock, and his plumage, which is very
different from that of the latter, he is like him in many par-
ticulars. The general colour of the feathers is brown and
black ; and turkeys have about the head, especially the cock,
naked and tuberous lumps of flesh of a bright red colour. A
long fleshy appendage hangs from the base of the upper
mandible, and seems to be lengthened and shortened at
pleasure. The hen lays from fifteen to twenty eggs, which
are whitish and freckled. The chickens are very tender,
and require great care and attentive nursing, before they
are able to seek their food.

THE PINTADO.

87

The wild Turkey-cock is, in our American forests, an
object of considerable interest. It perches on the tops of the
deciduous cypress and magnolias.

ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTE.

A gentleman of New York received from a distant part a
Turkey-cock and hen, and with them a pair of bantams;
which were put all together into the yard with his other
poultry. Some time afterward, as he was feeding them
from the barn-door, a large hawk suddenly turned the corner
of the barn, and made a pounce at the bantam hen ; she
immediately gave the alarm, by a noise which is natural to
her on such occasions ; when the Turkey-cock, who was at
the distance of about two yards, and without doubt under-
stood the hawk's intention, flew at the tyrant with such
violence, and gave him so severe a stroke with his spurs,
as to knock him from the hen to a considerable distance ; by
which means the bantam was rescued from destruction.

THE PINTADO, or GUINEA HEN.

(Numida Meleagris .)

The Pintado is somewhat larger than the common hen ;
the head is bare of feathers, and covered with a naked

88

THE PINTADO.

skin of a bluish colour; on the top is a callous protuberance
of a conical form. At the base of the bill on each side
hangs a loose wattle, red in the female and bluish in the
male. The general colour of the plumage is a dark bluish
gray, sprinkled with round white spots of different sizes,
resembling pearls, from which circumstance the epithet of
pearled has been applied to this bird; which, at first sight,
appears as if it had been pelted by a strong shower of hail.
These spots, which we find of a larger dimension upon some
of the feathers of the pheasant, and bigger still on the tail
of the peacock, are convincing proofs of a near relationship
between these fowls.

ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTE.

M. Brue informs us, that when he was on the coast of
Senegal, he received, as a present from an African princess,
two Guinea fowls. Both these birds were so familiar that
they would approach the table and eat out of his plate;
and, when they had liberty to fly about upon the beach,
they always returned to the ship when the dinner or supper
bell rang.

In a wild state it is asserted that the Pintado associates
in numerous flocks. Dampier speaks of having seen betwixt
two and three hundred of them together in the Cape de
Yerd Islands.

THE TAME PIGEON.

89

THE TAME PIGEON. ( Columba livia .)

Passing over the common barn fowl and the partridge,
pheasant, quail, and grouse, we come to the common tame
Pigeon, as a specimen of the genus Columba , of which there
are many species. The tame Pigeon is well known as to
the shape, but the colour varies so much, that it eludes the
rules of classification. They prefer a gregarious life, and
abide often, to the number of five or six thousand, in a cot
purposely built for them in the neighbourhood of a farm-
yard, with proper holes to nestle in. The female Pigeon,
through the whole species, lays two eggs at a time, which
produce generally a male and a female. It is pleasing to
see how eager the male is to sit upon the eggs, in order
that his mate may rest and feed herself. The young ones,
when hatched, require no food for the first three days,
warmth is their only nourishment; they are then fed from
the crop of the mother ; who has the power of forcing up the
half-digested peas which she has swallowed to give them to
her young. The young ones, open-mouthed, receive this
tribute of affection, and are thus fed three times a day.

ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTE.

There are upwards of twenty varieties of the domestic
Pigeon, and of these the Carriers are the most celebrated.
They obtain their name from being sometimes employed to
6

90

THE OSTRICH.

convey letters or small packets from one place to another.
The rapidity of their flight is very wonderful. Leithgow
assures us that one of them will carry a letter from Babylon
to Aleppo (which, to a man, is usually thirty days’ journey)
in forty-eight hours. To measure their speed with some
degree of exactness, a gentleman many years ago, on a
trifling wager, sent a Carrier Pigeon from London, by the
coach, to a friend at Bury St. Edmond’s ; and along with it
a note, desiring that the Pigeon, two days after its arrival
there, might be thrown up precisely when the town clock
struck nine in the morning. This was accordingly done,
and the Pigeon arrived in London at half-past eleven o’clock
of the same morning, having flown seventy-two miles in two
hours and a half. From the instant of its liberation, its
flight is directed through the clouds, at a great height, to
its home. By an instinct altogether inconceivable, it darts
onward, in a straight line, to the very spot whence it was
taken, but how it can direct its flight so exactly will pro-
bably for ever remain unknown to us.

THE OSTKICH. ( Struthio camelus.')

We place the Ostrich at the head of the fifth order of
birds, the Grallatores , or Waders. The Ostrich is a native
of Africa. It is one of the tallest of birds j as when it

THE OSTRICH.

91

Holds up its Head it can reacH eleven feet in HeigHt. THe
Head is very small in comparison with tHe body, being
Hardly bigger tHan one of the toes ; it is covered, as well as
tHe neck, witH a certain down, or tHin-set Hairs, instead of
featHers. The sides and thighs are entirely bare and flesh-
coloured. THe lower part of the neck, where the featHers
begin, is white. THe wings are short and of no use in
flying, but when the bird runs, which it does with a strange
jumping kind of motion, it raises its short wings, and holds
them quivering over its back, where they seem to serve as
a kind of sail to gather the wind and carry the bird on-
wards. The feathers of the back, in the cock, are coal-
black ) in the hen only dusky, and so soft that they resemble
a kind of wool. The tail is thick, bushy, and round ; in
the cock whitish, in the hen dusky with white tops. These
are the feathers so generally in requisition, to decorate the
head-dress of ladies and the helmets of warriors.

The Ostrich swallows anything that presents itself, lea-
ther, glass, iron, bread, hair, &c. ) and the power of digestion
in the stomach is so strong that even iron is very much
affected by it. An Ostrich in the Zoological Gardens in the
Regent’s Park, was, however, killed by swallowing a lady’s
parasol.

O’er the wild waste the stupid Ostrich strays,

In devious search to pick her scanty meal,

Whose fierce digestion gnaws the temper’d steel.

Mickle’s Lusiad.

92

THE OSTRICH.

They are polygamous birds ; one male being generally
seen with two or three, and sometimes with five females.
The female Ostrich, in the tropical regions, after depositing
her eggs in the sand, trusts them to be hatched by the heat
of the climate, and leaves the young ones to provide for
themselves.

ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES.

That Ostriches have great affection for their offspring,
may be inferred from the assertion of Professor Thunberg,
that he once rode past the place where a hen Ostrich was
sitting in her nest ; when the bird sprang up and pursued
him, evidently with a view to prevent his noticing her eggs
or young. Every time he turned his horse towards her,
she retreated ten or twelve paces ; but as soon as he rode
on again, she pursued him, till he had got to a considerable
distance from the place where he had started her. In the
tropical regions, some persons breed Ostriches in flocks ; for
they may be tamed with very little trouble ) and in their
domestic state, few animals may be rendered more useful.
When M. Adanson was at Podar, a French factory on the
southern bank of the river Niger, two young but full-grown
Ostriches, belonging to the factory, afforded him a very
amusing sight. They were so tame that two little blacks
mounted both together on the back of the largest. No
sooner did he feel their weight, than he began to run as fast
as possible, and carried them several times round the village ;

THE CASSOWARY.

93

and it was impossible to stop him otherwise than by obstruct-
ing the passage. This sight pleased M. Adanson so much,
that he wished it to be repeated ; and to try their strength,
he directed a full-grown negro to mount the smaller, and
two others the larger of the birds. This burden did not
seem at all disproportioned to their strength. At first, they
went at a tolerably sharp trot ; but when they became heated
a little, they expanded their wings, as though to catch the
wind, and moved with such fleetness that they scarcely
seemed to touch the ground. The foot of the Ostrich has
only two toes ; one of which is extremely large and strong,
to make its way through the moving sands of the desert.

THE CASSOWARY, ( Casuarms galeatus ,)

Is next in size to the ostrich, but of a different nature.
His wings are hardly perceptible, being very short, and
entirely concealed under the plumage. The general tint
of his feathers is brown, with some spots of vermilion red ;
his head is small and depressed, with a horny crown ; the
head and neck are deprived of feathers, and only set with a
kind of hairy down. From the bill to the claws the body
measures about five feet and a half ; about the neck are two
protuberances of a bluish colour, and in shape like the

94

THE WHOOPING CRANE.

wattles of a cock. Unlike other birds, the feathers of the
wings, and other parts of the body, are exactly the same ;
so that at a distance he looks rather as if he were entirely
covered with hairs like a bear, than with plumage like a
bird. The Cassowary eats indiscriminately whatever comes
in his way, and does not seem to have any sort of predilec-
tion in the choice of his food. He is a native of the southern
parts of India ; the eggs of the female are nearly fifteen
inches in circumference, of a grayish ash-colour, marked with
green. It has been said of the Cassowary, that he has the
head of a warrior, the eye of a lion, the armament of a por-
cupine, and the swiftness of a courser.

THE WHOOPING CRANE. (Grus Americana.')

This stately Crane (says Mr. Nuttall), the largest of all
the feathered tribes in the United States, like the rest of
its family, dwelling amidst marshes, and dark and desolate
swamps, according to the season, is met with in almosf every
part of Nprth America, from the islands of the West Indies,
to which it retires to pass the winter, to the utmost habitable
regions and fur countries of the North. A few hybernate in
the warmer parts of the Union, and some have been known
to linger through the whole of the inclement season in the
swamps of New Jersey, near to Cape May. When dis-

THE WHOOPING CRANE.

95

covered in their retreats, they are observed wandering along
the marshes and muddy flats near the sea-shore, in quest of
reptiles, fish, and marine worms. Occasionally they are seen
sailing along from place to place with a heavy, silent flight,
elevated but little above the surface of the earth. Ever
wary, and stealing from the view of all observers, these
gaunt shades of something which constantly avoids the social
light, impress the mind no less with curiosity than aversion,
and it is surprising, that furtive and inharmonious as owls,
they have not excited the prejudice of the superstitious.

At times they utter a loud, clear, and piercing cry, that
may be heard to a very considerable distance, and which,
being not unaptly compared to the whoop or yell of the
savages when rushing to battle, has conferred upon our bird
his peculiar appellation. Other species of the genus possess
also the same sonorous cry. When wounded, they attack
those who approach them with considerable vigour, so much
so as to have been known to dart their sharp and dagger-like
bill through the incautious hand held out for their capture.
Indeed, according to Dr. Richardson, they have sometimes
driven the fowler fairly out of the field.

ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES.

Captain Amidas (the first Englishman who ever set foot
in North America) thus graphically describes the clamour
of the Whooping Cranes, on his landing on the isle of Wo-

96

THE WHOOPING CRANE.

kokou, off the coast of North Carolina, in the month of
July : “ Such a flock of Cranes (the most part white) arose
under us, with such a cry, redoubled by many echoes, as if
an army of men had shouted altogether.” But though this
display of their discordant calls may be amusing, the bustle
of their great migrations, and the passage of their mighty
armies, fills the mind with wonder.

In the month of December, 1811 (says Mr. Nuttall), while
leisurely descending on the bosom of the Mississippi, in one
of the trading boats of that period, I had an opportunity of
witnessing one of these vast migrations of the Whooping
Cranes, assembled by many thousands from all the marshes
and impassable swamps of the north and west. The whole
continent seemed as if giving up its quota of the species to
swell the mighty host. Their flight took place in the night,
down the great aerial valley of the river, whose southern
course conducted them every instant towards warmer and
more hospitable climes. The clangour of these numerous
legions passing along, high in air, seemed almost deafening ;
the confused cry of the vast army continued, with the length-
ening procession, and as the vocal call continued nearly
throughout the whole night, without intermission, some idea
may be formed of the immensity of the numbers now assem-
bled on their annual journey to the regions of the south.

THE STILT.

97

THE BLACK-NECKED STILT.

( Himantopus nigricollis.')

This curious bird, under the name of Long-legged Avoset,
is described by Mr. Wilson in his usual lively and interest-
ing style. He says : —

This species arrives on the sea-coast of New Jersey about
the 25th of April, in small, detached flocks, of twenty or
thirty together. These sometimes again subdivide into
lesser parties ; but it rarely happens that a pair is found
solitary, as, during the breeding season, they usually asso-
ciate in small companies. On ?their first arrival, and,
indeed, during the whole of their residence, they inhabit
those particular parts of the salt marshes pretty high up
towards the land, that are broken into numerous shallow
pools, but are not usually overflowed by the tides during
the summer. These pools, or ponds, are generally so shal-
low, that, with their long legs, the Avosets can easily wade
them in every direction ) and, as they abound with minute
shell-fish, and multitudes of aquatic insects and their larvae,
besides the eggs and spawn of others deposited in the soft
mud below, these birds find here an abundant supply of
food, and are almost continually seen wading about in such
places, often up to the breast in water.

In the vicinity of these bald places, as they are called
by the country people, and at the distance of forty or fifty
yards off, among the thick tufts of grass, one of these small

98

THE STILT.

associations, consisting perhaps of six or eight pair, takes
up its residence during the breeding season. About the
first week in May they begin to construct their nests, which
are at* first slightly formed of a small quantity of old grass,
scarcely sufficient to keep the eggs from the wet marsh.
As they lay and sit, however, either dreading the rise of
the tides, or for some other purpose, the nest is increased
in height, with dry twigs of a shrub very common in the
marshes, roots of the salt grass, sea-weed, and various other
substances, the whole weighing between two and three
pounds. This habit of adding materials to the nest after
the female begins sitting, is common to almost all other
birds that breed in the marshes. The eggs are four in
number, of a dark yellowish clay-colour, thickly marked
with large blotches of black. These nests are often placed
within fifteen or twenty yards of each other; but the
greatest harmony seems to prevail among the proprietors.

While the females are sitting, the males are either wading
through the ponds, or roaming over the adjoining marshes;
but should a person make his appearance, the whole collect
together in the air, flying with their long legs extended
behind them, keeping up a continual yelping note of click,
click , click. Their flight is steady, and not in short, sud-
den jerks, like that of the plover. As they frequently
alight on the bare marsh, they drop their wings, stand with
their legs half bent, and trembling, as if unable to sustain
the burden of their bodies. In this ridiculous posture they

THE FLAMINGO.

99

will sometimes stand for several minutes, uttering a curring
sound, while, from the corresponding quiverings of their
wings and long legs, they seem to balance themselves with
great difficulty. This singular manoeuvre is, no doubt,
intended to induce a belief that they may be easily caught,
and so turn the attention of the person, from the pursuit of
their nests and young, to themselves.

The Red-necked Avoset practises the very same deception,
in the same ludicrous manner, and both alight indiscriminate-
ly on the ground or in the water. Both will also occasionally
swim for a few feet, when they chance in wading to lose
their depth, as I have had several times an opportunity of
observing.

The name by which this bird is known on the sea-coast
is the Stilt, or Tilt, or Long-Shanks. They are but
sparingly dispersed over the marshes, having, as has been
already observed, their particular favourite spots, while in
large intermediate tracts, there are few or none to be
found.

THE AMERICAN, OR REB FLAMINGO.

(- Phoenicojpterus ruber.')

The Flamingo of America (says Mr. Nuttall) is found
chiefly in the tropical regions, from whence it appears to

100

THE FLAMINGO.

emigrate in summer, on either side of the equator; in the
southern hemisphere, visiting Brazil, Peru, Chili, and
Buenos Ayres, on the shores of La Plata. It is also seen
in Cayenne (where it is known by the name of Tococo,
from the usual sound of its call), and in various islands of
the West Indies. They breed in Cuba and the Bahamas,
are not unfrequent at certain seasons on the coast of Florida,
and sometimes solitary individuals are observed even in the
Middle States; but in the Union generally, the species may
be considered as rare.

When seen at a distance, such is the brilliancy of their
dress, and the elevation at which they stand, that they
appear like a troop of soldiers, being arranged alongside of
each other, in lines, while on the borders of rivers and
estuaries near the sea, they assemble in search of their food,
which consists chiefly of small fish, spawn, and aquatic
insects.

They collect their prey by plunging in the bill and part
of the head ; and from time to time trample with their feet,
to disturb the water, and raise it from the bottom. While
the rest are thus employed in seeking their subsistence, one
of them stands sentinel, and, on the first note of alarm, a
kind of trumpet-call, he takes to wing, and the whole flock
immediately follow.

The Flamingo has the neck and legs in a greater dispro-
portion than any other bird. The length from the end of
the bill to that of the tail is four feet two or three inches ;

THE STORMY PETREL.

101

but to the end of the claws measures sometimes more than
six feet. The bill is four inches and a quarter long ; as far
as the bend black, but from thence to the base, reddish-
yellow; round the base quite to the eye, covered with a
flesh-coloured cere.

The plumage deep scarlet in the adult, except the quills,
wnich are black. From the base of the thigh to the claws,
measures thirty-two inches, of which the feathered part
takes up no more than three.

WILSON'S STOEMY PETEEL.

( Thalasidroma Wilsonii.')

We commence our series of the Palmipedes , or Web-
Footed birds, with this, which is called Wilson's Stormy
Petrel, in honour of Alexander Wilson, the celebrated his-
torian of American birds. It is on his authority that we
give the following description and illustrative anecdotes : —
The Stormy Petrel, the least of the whole twenty-four
species of its tribe enumerated by ornithologists, and the
smallest of all palmated fowls, is found over the whole
Atlantic Ocean, from Europe to North America, at all
distances from land, and in all weathers, but is particularly
numerous near vessels, immediately preceding and during a
gale, when flocks of them crowd in her wake, seeming then

102

THE STORMY PETREL.

more than usually active in picking up various matters from
the surface of the water.

The Stormy Petrels, or Mother Carey’s Chickens, breed
in great numbers on the rocky shores of the Bahama and
the Bermuda Islands, and in some places on the coast of
East Florida and Cuba. They breed in communities, like
the bank swallows, making their nests in the holes and
cavities of the rocks above the sea, returning to feed their
young only during the night, with the superabundant oily
food from their stomachs. At these times they may be
heard making a continued cluttering sound, like frogs,
during the whole night. In the day they are silent, and
wander widely over the ocean. This easily accounts for the
vast distance they are sometimes seen from land, even in
the breeding season. The rapidity of their flight is at least
equal to the fleetness of our swallows. Calculating this at
the rate of one mile per minute, twelve hours would be
sufficient to waft them a distance of seven hundred and
twenty miles ; but it is probable that the far greater part
confine themselves much nearer land during that interesting
period.

ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES.

In the month of July, while on a voyage from New
Orleans to New York, I saw few or none of these birds in
the Gulf of Mexico, although our ship was detained there
by calms for twenty days, and carried by currents as far

THE STORMY PETREL.

103

south as Cape Antonio, the westernmost extremity of Cuba.
On entering the Gulf Stream, and passing along the coasts
of Florida and the Carolinas, these birds made their appear-
ance in great numbers, and in all weathers, contributing
much by their sprightly evolutions of wing to enliven the
scene, and affording me every day several hours of amuse-
ment. It is indeed an interesting sight to observe these little
birds in a gale, coursing over the waves, down the declivities,
up the ascents of the foaming surf that threatens to burst
over their heads, sweeping along the hollow troughs of the
sea as in a sheltered valley, and again mounting with the
rising billow, and just above its surface occasionally dropping
its feet, which, striking the water, throw it up again with
additional force ; sometimes leaping, with both legs parallel,
on the surface of the roughest waves for several yards at a
time. Meanwhile it continues coursing from side to side
of the ship's wake, making excursions far and wide, to the
right and to the left, now a great way ahead, and now
shooting astern for several hundred yards, returning again
to the ship as if she were all the while stationary, though
perhaps running at the rate of ten knots an hour ! But the
most singular peculiarity of this bird is its faculty of stand-
ing, and even running, on the surface of the water, which
it performs with apparent facility. When any greasy matter
is thrown overboard, these birds instantly collect around it,
and, facing to windward, with their long wings expanded,
and their webbed feet patting the water, the lightness of

104

THE STORMY PETREL.

their bodies and the action of the wind on their wings enable
them to do this with ease. In calm weather, they perform the
same manoeuvre, by keeping their wings just so much in
action as to prevent their feet from sinking below the surface.
According to BufFon, it is from this singular habit that the
whole genus have obtained the name Petrel, from the
Apostle Peter, who, as Scripture informs us, also walked on
the water.

As these birds often come up immediately under the
stern, one can examine their form and plumage with nearly
as much accuracy as if they were in the hand. They fly
with the wings forming an almost straight, horizontal line
with the body, the legs extended behind, and the feet partly
seen stretching beyond the tail. Their common note of u weet ,
weet ” is scarcely louder than that of a young duck of a
week old, and much resembling it. During the whole of a
dark, wet, and boisterous night which I spent on deck, they
flew about the after rigging, making a singular hoarse
chattering, which in sound resembled the syllables patr&t tu
cuk cuk , tu tu , laying the accent strongly on the second
syllable tret. Now and then I conjectured that they alighted
on the rigging, making then a lower, curring noise.

Notwithstanding the superstitious fears of the seamen,
who dreaded the vengeance of the survivors, I shot four-
teen of these birds one calm day, in lat. 33°, eighty or
ninety miles off the coast of Carolina, and had the boat
lowered to pick them up. These I examined with consider-

THE PIED OYSTER-CATCHER. 105

able attention, and found the most perfect specimens as
follows : —

Length, six inches and three quarters; extent, thirteen
inches and a half; bill, black, nostrils, united in a tubular
projection, the upper mandible grooved from thence, and
overhanging the lower like that of a bird of prey ; head,
back, and lower parts, brown sooty black; greater wing-
coverts, pale brown, minutely tipped with white ; sides of
the vent, and whole tail-coverts, pure white; wings and
tail, deep black, the latter nearly even at the tip, or very
slightly forked; in some specimens, two or three of the
exterior tail-feathers were white for an inch or so at the
root ; legs and naked part of the thighs, black ; feet, web-
bed, with the slight rudiments of a hind toe ; the membrane
of the food is marked with a spot of straw yellow, and finely
serrated along the edges; eyes, black, Male and female
differing nothing in colour.

THE PIED OYSTER-CATCHER. (Rsemato^us
ostralegus .)

This singular species (says Wilson) although nowhere
numerous, inhabits almost every sea-shore, both on the new
and old continent, but is never found inland. It is the
only one of its genus hitherto discovered, and froip the cop-

106

THE PIED OYSTER-CATCHER.

formation of some of its parts, one might almost be led by
fancy to suppose, that it had borrowed the eye of the
pheasant, the legs and feet of the bustard, and the bill of
the woodpecker.

The Oyster-Catcher frequents the sandy sea-beach of New
Jersey, and other parts of our Atlantic coast, in summer, in
small parties of two or three pairs together. They are
extremely shy, and, except about the season of breeding,
will seldom permit a person to approach within gunshot.
They walk along the shore in a watchful, stately manner,
at times probing it with their long, wedge-like bills, in
search of small shell-fish. This appears evident, on exa-
mining the hard sands where they usually resort, which are
found thickly perforated with oblong holes, two or three inches
in depth. The small crabs called fiddlers, that burrow in the
mud at the bottom of inlets, are frequently the prey of the
Oyster-Catcher; as are muscles, spout fish, and a variety
of other shell-fish and sea insects with which those shores
abound.

The principal food, however, of this bird, according to
European writers, and that from which it derives its name,
is the oyster, which it is said to watch for, and snatch
suddenly from the shells, whenever it surprises them suffi-
ciently open. In search of these, it is reported that it often
frequents the oyster-beds, looking out for the slightest
opening through which it may attack its unwary prey. For
this purpose the form of its bill seems V^ry fitly cal-

THE PIED OYSTER-CATCHER. 107

culated. Yet the truth of these accounts is doubted by the
inhabitant^ of Egg Harbor, and other parts of our coast,
who positively assert, that it never haunts such places, but
confines itself almost solely to the sands ; and this opinion
I am inclined to believe correct, having myself uniformly
found these birds on the smooth beach bordering the ocean,
and on the higher, dry, and level sands, just beyond the
reach of the summer tides. On this last situation, where
the dry flats are thickly interspersed with drifted shells, I
have repeatedly found their nests, between the middle and
25th of May. The nest itself is a slight hollow in the
sand, containing three eggs, somewhat less than those of a
hen, and nearly of the same shape, of a bluish cream-colour,
marked with large, roundish spots of black, and others of a
fainter tint. In some, the ground cream-colour is destitute
of the bluish tint, the blotches larger, and of a deep brown.
The young are hatched about the 25th of May, and some-
times earlier, having myself caught them running along the
beach about that period. They are at first covered with
down of a grayish colour, very much resembling that of the
sand, and marked with a streak of brownish black on the
back, rump, and neck, the breast being dusky, where, in
the old ones, it is black. The bill is at that age slightly
bent downwards at the tip, where, like most other young
birds, it has a hard protuberance that assists them in break-
ing the shell ; but in a few days afterwards this falls off.
These run along the shore with great ease and swiftness.

108 THE PIED OYSTER-CATCHER.

Latham observes, that the young are said to he hatched in
about three weeks ; and though they are wild when in flocks,
yet are easily brought up tame, if taken young. “ I have
known them,” says he, u to be thus kept for a long time,
frequenting the ponds and ditches during the day, attending
the ducks and other poultry to shelter of nights, and
not unfrequently to come up of themselves as evening
approaches.”

The female sits on her eggs only during the night, or in
remarkably cold and rainy weather ; at other times the heat
of the sun and of the sand, which is sometimes great,
renders incubation unnecessary. But although this is the
case, she is not deficient in care or affection. She watches
the spot with an attachment, anxiety, and perseverance, that
are really surprising, till the time arrives when her little
offspring burst their prisons, and follow the guiding voice
of their mother. When there is appearance of danger, they
squat on the sand, from which they are with difficulty
distinguished, while the parents make large circuits around
the intruder, alighting sometimes on this hand, sometimes
on that, uttering repeated cries, and practising the common
affectionate stratagem of counterfeited lameness, to allure
him from their young.

ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES.

Some time ago (says Mr. Wilson) I received a stuffed
specimen of the Oyster-Catcher, from a gentleman of Boston,

THE PIED OYSTER-CATCHER, 109

an experienced sportsman, who, nevertheless, was unac-
quainted with this bird. He informed me, that two very
old men to whom it was shown, called it a Hagdel. He
adds, u It was shot from a flock, which was first discovered
on the beach near the entrance of Boston Harbour. On the
approach of the gunner, they rose, and instantly formed in
line, like a corps of troops, and advanced in perfect order,
keeping well dressed. They made a number of circuits in
the air previous to being shot at, but wheeled in line;
and the man who fired into the flock, observed that all
their evolutions were like those of a regularly-organized
military company.”

The Oyster-Catcher will not only take to the water when
wounded, but can also swim and -dive well. This fact I
can assert from my own observation, the exploits of one of
them in this way having nearly cost me my life. On the
sea-beach of Cape May, not far from a deep and rapid inlet,
I broke the wing of one of these birds, and being without
a dog, instantly pursued it towards the inlet, which it made
for with great rapidity. We both plunged in nearly at the
same instant ; but the bird eluded my grasp, and I sunk
beyond my depth; it was not until this moment that I
recollected having carried in my gun along with me. On
rising to the surface, I found the bird had dived, and a
strong ebb current was carrying me fast towards the ocean,
encumbered with a gun and all my shooting apparatus ; I
was compelled to relinquish my bird, and to make for the

110 THE PIED 0 YSTER-CATCHEK.

shore, with considerable mortification, and the total destruc-
tion of the contents of my powderhorn. The wounded bird
afterwards rose, and swam with great buoyancy out among
the breakers.

On the same day, I shot and examined three individuals
of this species, two of which measured each eighteen inches
in length, and thirty-five inches in extent ; the other was
somewhat less. The bills varied in length, measuring three
inches and three quarters, three and a half, and three and
a quarter, thinly compressed at the point, very much like
that of the woodpecker tribe, but remarkably narrowed
near the base where the nostrils are placed, probably that
it may work with more freedom in the sand. This instru-
ment, for two-thirds of its length towards the point, was
evidently much worn by digging; its colour, a rich orange -
scarlet, somewhat yellowish near the tip; eye, large; orbits,
of the same bright scarlet as the bill; irides, brilliant
yellow; pupil, small, bluish black; under the eye is a
small spot of white, and a large bed of the same on the
wing-coverts ; head, neck, scapulars, rump, wing-quills, and
tail, black ; several of the primaries are marked on the outer
vanes with a slanting band of white; secondaries, white,
part of them tipped with black ; the whole lower parts of
the body, sides of the rump, tail-coverts, and that portion
of the tail which they cover, are pure white ; the wings,
when shut, cover the whole white plumage of the back and
rump; legs and naked part of the thighs, pale red; feet,

THE GREAT HERON.

Ill

three-toed, the outer joined to the middle by a broad and
strong, membrane, and each bordered with a rough, warty
edge ; the soles of the feet are defended from the hard sand
and shells by a remarkably thick and callous warty skin.

On opening these birds, the smallest of the three was
found to be a male ; the gullet widened into a kind of
crop ; the stomach, or gizzard, contained fragments of shell-
fish, pieces of crabs, and of the great king-crab, with some
dark brown marine insects. The flesh was remarkably firm
and muscular; the skull, thick and strong, intended, no
doubt, as in the woodpecker tribe, for the security of the
brain from the violent concussions it might receive while
the bird was engaged in digging. The female and young
birds have the back and scapulars of a sooty brownish olive.

THE GREAT HERON. (Ardea Herodias.')

The Great Heron (says Mr. Wilson) is a constant inha-
bitant of the Atlantic coast, from New York to Florida; in
deep snows and severe weather seeking the open springs of
the cedar and cypress swamps, and the muddy inlets occa-
sionally covered by the tides. On the higher inland parts
of the country, beyond the mountains, they are less nume-
rous; and one which was shot in the upper parts of New

112

THE GREAT HERON.

Hampshire, was described to me as a great curiosity. Many
of their breeding-places occur in both Carolinas, chiefly in
the vicinity of the sea. In the lower parts of New Jersey,
they have also their favourite places for building, and rearing
their young. These are generally in the gloomy solitudes
of the tallest cedar swamps, where, if unmolested, they con-
tinue annually to breed for many years. These swamps
are from half a mile to a mile in breadth, and sometimes
five or six in length, and appear as if they occupied the
former channel of some choked-up river, stream, lake, or
arm of the sea. The appearance they present to a stranger
is singular — a front of tall and perfectly straight trunks,
rising to the height of fifty or sixty feet, without a limb,
and crowded in every direction, their tops so closely woven
together as to shut out the day, spreading the gloom of a
perpetual twilight below. On a nearer approach, they are
found to rise out of the water, which, from the impregnation
of the fallen leaves and roots of the cedars, is of the colour
of brandy. Amidst this bottom of congregated springs, the
ruins of the former forest lie piled in every state of con-
fusion. The roots, prostrate logs, and, in many places, the
water, are covered with green, mantling moss, while an
undergrowth of laurel, fifteen or twenty feet high, intersects
every opening so completely, as to render a passage through
laborious and harassing beyond description ; at every step,
you either sink to the knees, clamber over fallen timber,
squeeze yourself through between the stubborn laurels, or

THE GREAT HERON.

113

plunge to the' middle in ponds made by the uprooting of
large trees, which the green moss concealed from observa-
tion. In calm weather, the silence of death reigns in these
dreary regions ; a few interrupted rays of light shoot across
the gloom ; and unless for the occasional hollow screams
of the Herons, and the melancholy chirping of one or two
species of small birds, all is silence, solitude, and desolation.
When a breeze rises, at first it sighs mournfully through
the tops ; but as the gale increases, the tall mast-like cedars
wave like fishing-poles, and rubbing against each other,
produce a variety of singular noises, that, with the help of
a little imagination, resemble shrieks, groans, growling of
bears, wolves, and such like comfortable music.

On the tops of the tallest of these cedars the Herons
construct their nests, ten or fifteen pair sometimes occupy-
ing a particular part of the swamp. The nests are large,
formed of sticks, and lined with smaller twigs ; each occupies
the top of a single tree. The eggs are generally four, of an
oblong, pointed form, larger than those of a hen, and of a
light greenish blue, without any spots. The young are
produced about the middle of May, and remain on the trees
until they are full as heavy as the old ones, being extremely
fat, before they are able to fly. They breed but once in the
season. If disturbed in their breeding-place, the old birds
fly occasionally over the spot, sometimes honking like a
goose, sometimes uttering a coarse, hollow, grunting noise,
like that of a hog, but much louder.

114

THE GREAT HERON.

The Great Heron is said to be fat at the full moon, and lean
at its decrease ; this might be accounted for by the fact of
their fishing regularly by moonlight through the greater
part of the night, as well as during the day ; but the obser-
vation is not universal, for at such times I have found some
lean, as well as others fat. The young are said to be excel-
lent for the table, and even the old birds, when in good
order, and properly cooked, are esteemed by many.

The principal food of the Great Heron is fish, for which
he watches with the most unwearied patience, and seizes
them with surprising dexterity. At the edge of the river,
pond, or sea-shore, he stands fixed and motionless, some-
times for hours together. But his stroke is quick as thought,
and ^sure as fate, to the first luckless fish that approaches
within his reach ; these he sometimes beats to death, and
always swallows head foremost, such being their uniform
position in the stomach. He is also an excellent mouser,
and of great service to our meadows, in destroying the short-
tailed or meadow mouse, so injurious to the banks. He also
feeds eagerly on grasshoppers, various winged insects, par-
ticularly dragon flies, which he is very expert at striking,
and also eats the seeds of that species of nymphge usually
called spatterdocks, so abundant along our fresh-water ponds
and rivers.

The Heron has great powers of wing, flying sometimes
very high, and to a great distance; his neck doubled, his
head drawn in, and his long legs stretched out in a right

THE GREAT HERON.

115

line behind him, appearing like a tail, and, probably, serving
the same rudder-like office. When he leaves the sea-coast,
and traces, on wing, the courses of the creeks or rivers up-
wards, he is said to prognosticate rain ; when downwards,
dry weather. He is most jealously vigilant and watchful
of man, so that those who wish to succeed in shooting the
Heron, must approach him entirely unseen, and by strata-
gem. The same inducements, however, for his destruction,
do not prevail here as in Europe. Our sea-shores and
rivers are free to all for the amusement of fishing. Luxury
has not yet constructed her thousands of fish-ponds, and
surrounded them with steel traps, spring guns and Heron
snares. In our vast fens, meadows, and sea-marshes, this
stately bird roams at pleasure, feasting on the never-failing
magazines of frogs, fish, seeds, and insects, with which they
abound, and of which he, probably, considers himself the
sole lord and proprietor. I have several times seen the
bald eagle attack and tease the Great Heron ; but whether
for sport, or to make him disgorge his fish, I am uncertain.

The Common Heron of Europe very much resembles the
present, which might, as usual, have probably been ranked
as the original stock, of which the present was a mere
degenerated species, were it not that the American is greatly
superior, in size and weight, to the European species ; the
former measuring four feet four inches, and weighing up-
wards of seven pounds ; the latter, three feet three inches,
and rarely weighing more than four pounds. Yet, with the

116

THE GREAT HERON.

exception of size, and the rust-coloured thighs of the present,
they are extremely alike. The Common Heron of Europe,
however, is not an inhabitant of the United States.

The Great Heron does not receive his full plumage during
the first season, nor until the summer of the second. In
the first season, the young birds are entirely destitute of the
white plumage of the crown, and the long, pointed feathers
of the back, shoulders, and breast. In this dress I have
frequently shot them in autumn; but in the third year,
both males and females have assumed their complete dress,
and, contrary to all the European accounts which I have
met with, both are then so nearly alike in colour and
markings, as scarcely to be distinguished from each other,
both having the long, flowing crest, and all the ornamental,
white, pointed plumage of the back and breast. Indeed,
this sameness in the plumage of the males and females,
when arrived at their perfect state, is a characteristic of the
whole of the genus with which I am acquainted. Whether
it be different with those of Europe, or that the young and
imperfect birds have been hitherto mistaken for females, I
will not pretend to say, though I think the latter conjecture
highly probable, as the night raven has been known in
Europe for several centuries, and yet, in all their accounts,
the sameness of the colours and plumage of the male and
female of that bird is nowhere mentioned ; on the contrary,
the young, or yearling bird, has been universally described
as the female.

THE GREAT HERON.

117

ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES.

u The Heron/' says an English writer, u is a very ’great
devourer of fish, and does more mischief in a pond than an
otter. People who have kept Herons, have had the curio-
sity to number the fish they feed them with into a tub of
water, and counting them again afterwards, it has been found
that they will eat up fifty moderate dace and roaches in a
day. It has been found, that in carp-ponds visited by this
bird, one Heron will eat up a thousand store carp in a
year ; and will hunt them so close, as to let very few escape.
The readiest method of destroying this mischievous bird, is
by fishing for him in the manner of pike, with a baited
hook. When the haunt of the Heron is found out, three
or four small roach, or dace, are to be procured, and each
of them is to be baited on a wire, with a strong hook at the
end, entering the wire just at the gills, and letting it run
just under the skin to the tail ; the fish will live in this
manner for five or six days, which is a very essential thing ;
for if it be dead, the Heron will not touch it. A strong
line is then to be prepared of silk and wire twisted together,
and is to be about two yards long ; tie this to the wire that
holds the hook, and to the other end of it there is to be tied
a stone of about a pound weight; let three or four of these
baits be sunk in different shallow parts of the pond, and, in
a night or two's time, the Heron will not fail to be taken
with one or other of them."

118

THE WOOD IBIS.

THE WOOD IBIS. ( Tantalus loculator.')

THE Wood Ibis (says Mr. Wilson) inhabits the lower parts
of Louisiana, Carolina, and Georgia; is very common in
Florida, and extends as far south as Cayenne, Brazil, and
various parts of South America. In the United States it is
migratory ; but has never, to my knowledge, been found to the
north of Virginia. Its favourite haunts are watery savannas
and inland swamps, where it feeds on fish and reptiles. The
French inhabitants of Louisiana esteem it good eating.

With the particular manners of this species I am not
personally acquainted ; but the following characteristic traits
are given of it by Mr. William Bartram, who had the best
opportunities of noting them : —

u This solitary bird,” he observes, u does not associate in
flocks, but is generally seen alone, commonly near the
banks of great rivers, in vast marshes or meadows, especially
such as are covered by inundations, and also in the vast,
deserted rice plantations ; he stands alone on the topmost
limb of tall, dead cypress-trees, his neck contracted or drawn
in upon his shoulders, and his beak resting, like a long
scythe, upon his breast ; in this pensive posture, and solitary
situation, they look extremely grave, sorrowful, and melan-
choly, as if in the deepest thought. They are never seen
on the sea-coast, and yet are never found at a great distance
from it. They feed on serpents, young alligators, frogs, and
other reptiles.”

THE SNOW GOOSE.

119

THE SNOW GOOSE. ( Anas hjperborea.')

This species, called on the sea-coast the Ked Goose, arrives
in the river Delaware, from the north, early in November,
sometimes in considerable flocks, and is extremely noisy,
their notes being shriller and more squeaking than those of
the Canada, or Common Wild Goose. On their first arrival
they make but a short stay, proceeding, as the depth of
winter approaches, farther to the south; but from the
middle of February, until the breaking up of the ice in
March, they are frequently numerous along both shores of
the Delaware, about and below Reedy Island, particularly
near Old Duck Creek, in the state of Delaware. They feed
on the roots of the reeds there, tearing them up from the
marshes like hogs. Their flesh, like most others of their
tribe, that feed on vegetables, is excellent.

The Snow Goose is two feet eight inches in length, and
five feet in extent; the bill is three inches in length,
remarkably thick at the base, and rising high in the fore-
head, but becomes small and compressed at the extremity,
where each mandible is furnished with a whitish rounding
nail ; the colour of the bill is a purplish carmine ; the edges
of the two mandibles separate from each other, in a singular
manner, for their whole length, and this gibbosity is occu-
pied by dentated rows, resembling teeth, these, and the
parts adjoining, being of a blackish colour; the whole
plumage is of a snowy whiteness, with the exception, first,

120

THE SNOW. GOOSE.

of the fore part of the head all round as far as the eyes,
which is of a yellowish rust-colour, intermixed with white ;
and, second, the nine exterior quill-feathers, which are black,
shafted with white, and white at the root; the covers of
these last, and also the bastard wing, are sometimes of a
pale ash-colour; the legs and feet, of the same purplish
carmine as the bill ; iris, dark hazel ; the tail is rounded
and consists of sixteen feathers; that, and the wings, when
shut, nearly of a length.

The bill of this bird is singularly curious ; the edges of
the upper and lower gibbosities have each twenty-three
indentations, or strong teeth, on each side; the inside, or
concavity of the upper mandible, has also seven lateral rows
of strong, projecting teeth ; and the tongue, which is horny
at the extremity, is armed on each side with thirteen long
and sharp, bony teeth, placed like those of a saw, with their
points directed backwards; the tongue turned up, and viewed
on its lower side, looks very much like a human finger with
its nail. This conformation of the mandibles, exposing two
rows of strong teeth, has, probably, given rise to the epithet
Laughing, bestowed on one of its varieties, though it might,
with as much propriety, have been named the Grinning
Goose.

The specimen from which the above description was
taken, was shot on the Delaware, below Philadelphia, on the
15th of February, and on dissection proved to be a male ;
the windpipe had no labyrinth, but, for an inch or two

THE SNOW GOOSE.

121

before its divarication into the lungs, was inflexible, not
extensile, like the rest, and rather wider in diameter. The
gullet had an expansion before entering the stomach, which
last was remarkably strong, the two great grinding muscles
being nearly five inches in diameter. The stomach was
filled with fragments of the roots of reeds, and fine sand.
The intestines measured eight feet in length, and were not
remarkably thick. The liver was small.

ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES.

Latham observes that this species is very numerous at
Hudson’s Bay, that they visit Severn river in May, and
stay a fortnight, but go farther north to breed ; they return
to Severn Fort the beginning of September, and stay till
the middle of October, when they depart for the south, and
are observed to be attended by their young, in flocks in-
numerable. They seem to occupy also the western side of
America, as they were seen at Aoonalashka, as well as Kam-
tschatka. White Brant, with black tips to their wings, were
also shot by Captains Lewis and Clark’s exploring party, near
the mouth of the Columbia river, which were probably the
same as the present species. Mr. Pennant says, “ They are
taken by the Siberians in nets, under which they are decoyed
by a person covered with a white skin, and crawling on all
fours ; when, others driving them, these stupid birds, mistak-
ing him for their leader, follow him, when they are entangled
in the nets, or led into a kind of pond made for the pur-

8

122

THE ALBATROSS.

pose!” We might here, with propriety, add — - This wants
confirmation.

THE WANDERING ALBATROSS. (. Diomedea

exulans.')

This bird is found in the Atlantic Ocean, from Southern
Africa to the American coast, as well as in the Pacific.
There are three species of the genus, viz : the Albatross of
China; the Yellow and Black-beaked Albatross, and the
Common or Wandering Albatross.

The Common Albatross is the species which is most fre-
quently met with in the seas of Southern Africa. It is the
largest sea-bird known. On account of its size and colour
it is often called the Sheep of the Cape, — a name under
which it is found in several voyages. The top of the head
is a ruddy gray ; the rest of the plumage is white, with the
exception of several transverse black bands on the back, and
a few of the wing-feathers. The feet and membrane are of
a deep flesh-colour ; the bill a pale yellow.

The weight of this bird has been variously stated, at from
twelve to twenty-eight pounds; and a similar difference
appears to exist in authors, with respect to the distance
between the extremity of the extended wings. Forster says
about ten feet, — Parkins, eleven feet seven inches, — Cook,
eleven feet; another says twelve feet; a specimen in the

THE ALBATROSS.

123

Leverian museum measured thirteen feet; and Ives (p. 5),
mentions one, shot off the Cape of Good Hope, which
measured seventeen feet and a half from wing to wing. Dr.
Arnott, in his Physics, says, — “ How powerful must be the
wing-muscles of birds, which sustain themselves in the sky
for hours together ! The Great Albatross, with wings extend-
ing fourteen feet or more, is seen in the stormy solitude of
the Southern Ocean, accompanying ships for whole days
without ever resting on the waves !”

We can, from this circumstance, readily understand the
extensive range in which the Albatross is found ; not being
confined, as Buffon imagined, to the Southern Ocean, but
being equally abundant in the northern latitudes, though
Forster says, he never observed it within the tropics. These
birds are seen in immense flocks about Behring's Straits
and Kamtschatka, about the end of J une, frequenting chiefly
the inner sea, the Kurile Islands, and the B^y of Pent-
schinensi, whereas scarcely a straggler is to be seen on the
eastern or American shore. They seem to be attracted
thither by vast shoals of fish, whose migratory movements
the albatrosses follow. On their first appearing in those
seas, they are very lean, but, from finding abundance of
food, they soon become fat. Their voracity is so great, that
they will often swallow a salmon of four or five pounds
weight, and then, being half choked, and unable, in con-
sequence, to move, the natives easily knock them down
with a stick.

124

THE ALBATitOSS.

They do not, however, confine themselves to fish, but
will prey on any other sea-animal; and Cook's sailors
caught them with a line and a hook. The Kamtschadales
take them by fastening a cord to a large hook, baited with
a whole fish, which the birds greedily seize. Their usual
food, however, seems rather to be fish-spawn and small
molluscse. M. Querhoent never found in their stomachs
anything besides a thick mucilage.

Notwithstanding their strength, they never venture to
attack other sea-birds, but are, on the contrary, attacked by
the gulls. “ Several large grey gulls," says Cook, “ that
were pursuing a white albatross, afforded us a diverting
spectacle ; they overtook it, notwithstanding the length of
its wings, and they tried to attack it under the belly, that
part being probably defenceless ; the albatross had now no
means of escaping, but by dipping its body into the water;
its formidable bill seemed to repel them."

Their flesh is tough and dry; but the Kamtschadales
take them for the sake of their entrails, which they blow
and use as buoys for their nets. They employ the wing-
bones also, which Edwards says are as long as their whole
body, for tobacco pipes.

THE SWAN.

125

THE SWAN. ( Anas Cygnus.')

So much difference is there between this bird when on
land and in the water, that it is hardly to be supposed the
same; for in the latter, no bird can possibly exceed it for
beauty and majestic appearance. When it ascends from
its favourite element, its motions are awkward, and its neck is
stretched forward with an air of stupidity ; it has, indeed,
the air of being only a larger sort of goose ; but when seen
smoothly gliding along the water, displaying a thousand
graceful attitudes, and moving at pleasure without the
smallest apparent effort, there is not a more beautiful figure
in all nature. In its form, we find no broken or harsh
lines; in its motions, nothing constrained or abrupt; but
the roundest contours, and the easiest transitions ; the eye
wanders over the whole with unalloyed pleasure, and with
every change of position every part assumes a new grace.
It will swim faster than a man can walk.

This bird has long been rendered domestic; and it is
now a doubt whether there be any of the tame kind in a
state of nature. The colour of the tame Swan is entirely
white, and it generally weighs full twenty pounds. Under
the feathers is a very thick soft down, which is made an
article of commerce, for purposes of both use and ornament.
The windpipe sinks down into the lungs in the ordinary
manner ; and it is the most silent of all the feathered tribes ;
it can do nothing more than hiss, which it does on receiving

126

THE SWAN.

any provocation. In these respects it is very different from
the wild or Whistling Swan.

This beautiful bird is as delicate in its appetites as it is
elegant in its form. Its chief food is corn, bread, herbs
growing in the water, and roots and seeds, which are found
near the margin. At the time of incubation it prepares a
nest in some retired part of the bank, and chiefly where
there is an inlet in the stream. This is composed of water
plants, long grass, and sticks : and the male and female
assist in forming it with great assiduity. The Swan lays
seven or eight eggs, white, one every other day, much
larger than those of a goose, with a hard, and sometimes a
tuberous shell. It sits six weeks before its young are
excluded ) which are ash-coloured when they first leave the
shell, and for some months after. It is not a little dangerous
to approach the old ones, when their little family are feed-
ing round them. Their fears, as well as their pride, seem
to take the alarm, and when in danger, the old birds carry
off the young ones on their back. A female has been
known to attack and drown a fox, which was swimming
towards her nest ; they are able to throw down and trample
on youths of fifteen or sixteen ; and an old Swan can break
the leg of a man with a single stroke of its wing.

THE COOT.

127

THE CINEREOUS COOT. ( Fulica Americana.')

This species makes its appearance in Pennsylvania about
the first of October. Among the muddy flats and islands
of the river Delawaref which are periodically overflowed,
and which are overgrown with the reed, or wild oats, and
rushes, the Coots are found. They are hot numerous, and
are seldom seen, except their places of resort be covered
with water ; in that case they are generally found sitting on
the fallen reed, waiting for the ebbing of the tide, which
will enable them to feed. Their food consists of various
aquatic plants, seeds, insects, and, it is said, small fish.

The Coot has an aversion to take wing, and can seldom
be sprung in its retreat at low water ; for, although it walks
rather awkwardly, yet it contrives to skulk through the
grass and reeds with great speed, the compressed form of
its body, like that of the rail genus, being well adapted to
the purpose. It swims remarkably well, and, when wounded,
will dive like a duck. When closely pursued in the water,
it generally takes to the shore, rising with apparent reluc-
tance, like a wounded duck, and fluttering along the surface,
with its feet pattering on the water. It is known in Penn-
sylvania by the name of the Mud-Hen.

I have never yet discovered that this species breeds with
us (says Wilson), though it is highly probable that some
few may occupy the marshes of the interior, in the vicinity
of the ponds and lakes, for this purpose ) those retired situ-

128

THE COOT.

ations being well adapted to the batching and rearing of
their young. In the Southern States, particularly South
Carolina, they are well known ; but the Floridas appear to
be their principal rendezvous for the business of incubation.
u The Coot,” says William Bartram*, “ is a native of North
America, from Pennsylvania to Florida. They inhabit
large rivers, fresh-water inlets or bays, lagoons, &c., where
they swim and feed amongst the reeds and grass of the
shores ; particularly in the river St. Juan, in East Florida ;
where they are found in immense flocks. They are loqua-
cious and noisy, talking to one another night and day ; are
constantly on the water, the broad, lobated membranes on
their toes enabling them to swim and dive like ducks.”

The Coot inhabits the shores of Sweden and Norway;
appears in the spring, and very rarely visits the lakes or
moors. Is found in .Russia, China, Persia, Greenland, and
Siberia. It is common in France, particularly in Lorraine.

“ This species is met with in Great Britain, at all seasons
of the year; and it is generally believed, that it does not
migrate to other countries, but changes its stations, and
removes in the autumn from the lesser pools, or loughs,
where the young have been reared, to the larger lakes,
where flocks assemble in the winter. The female commonly
builds her nest in a bunch of rushes, surrounded by the
water; it is composed of a great quantity of coarse dried
weeds, well matted together, and lined within with softer
and finer grasses ; she lays from twelve to fifteen eggs at a

THE COOT.

129

time, and commonly hatches twice in a season ; her eggs
are about the size of those of a pullet, and are of a pale
brownish white colour, sprinkled with numerous small, dark,
spots, which at the thicker end, seem as if they had run
into each other, and formed bigger blotches.

“ As soon as the young quit the shell, they plunge into
the water, dive, and swim about with great ease ; but they
still gather together about the mother, and take shelter
under her wings, and do not entirely leave her for some
time. They are at first covered with sooty coloured down,
and are of a shapeless appearance ; while they are in this
state, and before they have learned by experience to shun
danger, the kite, moor buzzard, and others of the hawk
tribe, make dreadful havoc among them.”

The Cinereous Coot is sixteen inches in length, and
twenty-eight in extent; bill, one inch and a half long,
white, the upper mandible slightly notched near the tip,
and marked across with a band of chestnut, the lower man-
dible marked on each side with a squarish spot of the like
colour, edged on the lower part with bright yellow, or gam-
boge, thence to the tip, pale horn colour ; membrane of the
forehead, dark chestnut brown ; irides, cornelian red ;
beneath the eye, in most specimens, a whitish spot; the
head and neck are of a deep shining black, resembling
satin ; back and scapulars, dirty greenish olive ; shoulders,
breast, and wing-coverts, slate blue; the under parts are
hoary; vent black; beneath the tail, pure white; primaries

130

THE COOT.

and secondaries, slate, the former tipped with black, the
latter with white, which does not appear when the wing is
closed ; outer edges of the wings, white ; legs and toes yel-
lowish green, the scalloped membrane of the latter, lead
colour; middle toe, including the claw, three inches and
three-cmarters long.

ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES.

Buffon describes the mode of shooting Coots in France,
particularly in Lorraine, on the great pools of Tiaucourt,
and of Indre ; hence we are led to suppose, that they are
esteemed as an article of food. But with us, who are
enabled, by the abundance and variety of game, to indulge
in greater luxuries in that season when our Coots visit us,
they are considered as of no account, and are seldom eaten.

The European ornithologists represent the membrane on
the forehead of the Coot as white, except in the breeding
season, when it is said to change its colour to pale red.
This circumstance would induce one to suppose, that our
Coot is a different species from the European, which I have
never had the satisfaction to behold; and, indeed, I am
much of that opinion.

It is a very rare occurrence, that the Coot is seen in the
vicinity of Philadelphia in the spring or summer. The
19th of March, 1814, I had the satisfaction of being pre-
sented with one, a female, which was shot in the Schuylkill,
at Gray's Ferry. I could see no difference in its plumage

THE SUMMER DUCK.

131

and markings, from those of the full-grown male, except
the head and neck not being of so deep a black. The
membrane on the forehead was not more than half the
size of that of the female specimen, described above, and it
was of the same colour, viz., dark chestnut. All the birds
which I have ever seen, had this appendage of the same
colour.

In Lewis and Clark’s history of their expedition, mention
is made of a bird which is common on the Columbia; is
said to be very noisy, to have a sharp, shrill whistle, and
to associate in large flocks ; it is called the Black Duck.
This is doubtless a species of Coot, but whether or not dif-
ferent from ours, cannot be ascertained. How much is it
to be regretted, that, in an expedition of discovery, planned
and fitted out by an enlightened government, furnished
with every means for safety, subsistence, and research, not
one naturalist, not one draughtsman, should have been sent,
to observe and perpetuate the infinite variety of natural
productions, many of which are entirely unknown to the
community of science, which that extensive tour must have
revealed !

THE SUMMER, or WOOD DUCK. {Anas sponsa .)

This most beautiful of Ducks (says Nuttall) seems to be
dressed in a studied attire, to which the addition of a flow-

132

THE SUMMER DUCK.

ing crest adds a finish of peculiar elegance; and hence
Linnaeus has dignified the species with the title of Sponsa ,
or the Bride. This splendid bird is peculiar to America,
but extends its residence from the cold regions of Hudson’s
Bay, in the 54th parallel, to Mexico and the Antilles.
Throughout a great part of this vast space, or at least as far
south as Florida and the Mississippi territory, the Summer
Duck is known to breed. In the interior they are also
found in the state of Missouri, and along the woody borders
and still streams which flow into most of the great north-
western lakes of the St. Lawrence. The Summer Duck, so
called from its constant residence in the United States, has
indeed but little predilection for the sea-coast, its favourite
haunts being the solitary, deep, and still waters, ponds,
woody lakes, and the mill-dams in the interior, making its
nest often in decayed and hollow trees impending over the
water.

Though many migrate probably to the shores of the
Mexican Gulf, numbers pass the winter in the states south
of Virginia. Early in February they are seen associated
by pairs on the inundated banks of the Alabama, and are
frequent at the same season in the waters of West Florida.
In Pennsylvania they usually nest late in April or early in
May, choosing the hollow of some broken or decayed tree,
and sometimes even constructing a rude nest of sticks in the
forks of branches. The eggs, twelve or thirteen, are yellow-
ish-white, rather less than those of the domestic hen, and

THE SUMMER DUCK.

133

they are usually covered with down, probably plucked from
the breast of the parent. The same tree is sometimes
occupied, by the same pair, for several successive years, in
the breeding season. The young, when hatched, are carried
down in the bill of the female, and afterwards conducted by
her to the nearest water. To these places, when once
selected, if not disturbed, they sometimes show a strong
predilection, and are not easily induced to forsake the
premises, however invaded by noise and bustle. While the
female is sitting, the male is usually perched on some
adjoining limb of the same tree, keeping watch for their
common safety. The species is scarcely ever gregarious,
they are only seen in pairs or by families. The common
note of the drake is peet, peet ; but when on his post as
sentinel, on espying danger, he makes a sort of crowing
noise, like ’hoo eek , yhoo eeh.

The food of the Wood Duck consists principally of acorns,
the seeds of aquatic plants, such as the Wild Oat, Ruppia ,
&c., and insects, which inhabit in or near waters; and I
have seen a fine male whose stomach was wholly filled with
a mass of the small coleoptera, called Donatias , which are
seen so nimbly flying over or resting on the leaves of the
pond lily ; they are therefore very alert in quest of their
prey, or they could never capture these wary insects. They
are not uncommon in the markets of the Eastern and Middle
States, and are justly esteemed as food.

The Wood Duck has sometimes been tamed, and soon

134

THE SUMMER DUCK.

becomes familiar. They have even been so far domesticated
as to run about at large in the barn-yard like ordinary fowls.
In France they have also been acclimated and tamed, and
have bred in this condition.

ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES.

The Summer Duck is equally well known in Mexico and
many of the West India islands. During the whole of our
winters, they are occasionally seen in the states south of
the Potomac. On the 10th of January (says Wilson), I
met with two on a creek near Petersburgh, in Virginia. In
the more northern districts, however, they are migratory.
In Pennsylvania, the female usually begins to lay late m
April or early in May. Instances have been known where
the nest was constructed of a few sticks laid in a fork of
the branches ; usually, however, the inside of a hollow tree
is selected for this purpose.

On the 18th of May I visited a tree containing the nest
of a Summer Duck, on the banks of Tuckahoe river, New
J ersey. It was an old, grotesque white oak, whose top had
been torn off by a storm. It stood on the declivity of the
bank, about twenty yards from the water. In this hollow
and broken top, and about six feet down, on the soft, de-
cayed wood, lay thirteen eggs, snugly covered with down,
doubtless taken from the breast of the bird. These eggs
were of an exact oval shape, less than those of a hen, the
surface exceedingly fine grained, and of the highest polish,

THE SUMMER DUCK.

135

and slightly yellowish, greatly resembling old, polished
ivory. The egg measured two inches and an eighth by one
inch and a half. On breaking one of them, the young bird
was found to be nearly hatched, but dead, as neither of the
parents had been observed about the tree during the three
or four days preceding, and were conjectured to have been
shot.

This tree had been occupied, probably by the same pair,
for four successive years, in breeding time ; the person who
gave me the information, and whose house was within
twenty or thirty yards of the tree, said that he had seen
the female, the spring preceding, carry down thirteen young,
one by one, in less than ten minutes. She caught them in
her bill by the wing or back of the neck, and landed them
safely at the foot of the tree, whence she afterwards led
them to the water.

Under this same tree, at the time I visited it, a large
sloop lay on the stocks, nearly finished ; the deck was not
more than twelve feet distant from the nest, yet notwith-
standing the presence and noise of the workmen, the Ducks
would not abandon their old breeding place, but continued
to pass out and in, as if no person had been near. The
male usually perched on an adjoining limb, and kept watch
while the female was laying, and also often while she was
sitting. A tame goose had chosen a hollow space at the
root of the same tree, to lay and hatch her young in.

136

THE SUMMER DUCK.

The Summer Duck seldom flies in flocks of more than
three or four individuals together, and most commonly in
pairs, or singly. Their flesh is inferior to that of the blue-
winged teal. They are frequent in the markets of Phila-
delphia.

Among other gaudy feathers with which the Indians
ornament the calumet or pipe of peace, the skin of the head
and neck of the Summer Duck is frequently seen covering
the stem.

This beautiful bird has often been tamed, and soon
becomes so familiar as to permit one to stroke its back with
the hand. I have seen individuals so tamed, in various
parts of the Union. Captain Boyer, collector of the port
of Ilavre-de-Grace, informs me, that, about forty years ago,
a Mr. Nathan Nicols, who lived on the west side of Gun-
powder Creek, had a whole yard swarming with Summer
Ducks, which he had tamed and completely domesticated,
so that they bred and were as familiar as any other tame
fowls ; that he (Captain Boyer) himself saw them in that
state, but does not know what became of them. Latham
says, that they are often kept in European menageries, and
wiU breed there.

HE COMMON DUCK.

13T

THE COMMON DUCK, or MALLARD. (Anas
domestica.')

The Mallard, or original of our domestic Duck, like so
many other species (says Mr. Nuttall) is common to most
parts of the northern hemisphere. As a bird of passage/
in spring and autumn, it is seen in every part of the United
States, and indeed inhabits more or less the whole continent,
from the Gulf of Mexico to the 68th parallel in the fur
countries of the Canadian wilderness. In Europe it is met
with everywhere, up to the dreary climates of Greenland,
where many even pass the greater part of the winter.
They breed in the inland woody districts of the fur countries,
and more or less through all the intermediate space as far
south as Pennsylvania. In England also, as well as in
Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and all parts of the vast domi-
nions of Russia, no less than Arctic Europe, and the
Aleutian Islands in the north Pacific, the Wild Duck is
known to breed. They nest commonly on the borders of
rivers and lakes, sometimes at a considerable distance from
water, amongst reeds, grass, or in fields and copses, accord-
ing to the convenience of the locality, and occasionally even
upon trees impending over waters. For its nest it scrapes
together a small quantity of such dry weeds as happen to
be contiguous, and lays from ten to eighteen eggs of a
bluish-white. At the time of incubation, the female plucks
9

138

THE COMMON DUCK.

the down from her breast to line the nest, and frequently
covers the eggs when she leaves them.

ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES.

The Duck, like other birds whose young ones run as soon
as they are hatched, generally deposits her eggs on the
ground ; hut there are some exceptions to this rule. Mr.
Selby says : “ Such an instance once occurred within my
knowledge, and near my own residence, where a Wild Duck
laid her eggs in the old nest of a crow, at least thirty feet
from the ground. At this elevation she hatched her young ;
and as none of them were found dead beneath the tree, it
is presumed she carried them safely to the ground in her
bill, a mode of conveyance known to be frequently adopted
by the Eider Duck.” Montagu says, u We have been assured
by a person of undoubted veracity that a half domesticated
Duck made a nest in Rumford Tower, hatched her young,
and brought them down in safety to a piece of water at a
considerable distance. Others have been known to breed
in trees ; and we recollect the nest of this bird being found
in the head of an old pollard willow, impending the water,
from whence the young might readily drop unhurt into their
natural element. Mr. Tunstall mentions one, at Etching*
ham, in Sussex, which was found sitting upon nine eggs,
on an oak-tree, twenty-five feet from the ground : and the
author of the ( Rural Sports* records an instance of one
taking possession of the nest of a hawk in a large oak. To

THE CANVASS-BACK BUCK.

139

these we can add, upon the testimony of a gentleman of the
strictest veracity, that out of a large flock of half-domesti-
cated Ducks, one deposited her eggs in the principal fork
of a large tree near his house. Eggs, ten to fourteen, of a
bluish-white ; the female, when she quits the nest for food,
covers them with down and other substances.

THE CANYASS-BACK DUCK. {Anas valismeria .)

This celebrated American species (says Mr. Wilson), as
far as can be judged from the best figures and descriptions
of foreign birds, is altogether unknown in Europe. It
approaches nearest to the pochard of England, but differs
from that bird in being superior in size and weight, in the
greater magnitude of its bill, and the general whiteness of
its plumage. A short comparison of the two will elucidate
this point : The Canvass-Back measures two feet in length
by three feet in extent, and, when in the best order, weighs
three pounds and upwards. The pochard, according to
Latham and Bewick, measures nineteen inches in length,
and thirty in extent, and weighs one pound twelve or thirteen
ounces. The latter writer says of the pochard, “ The plu-
mage, above and below, is wholly covered with prettily-
freckled, slender, dusky threads, disposed transversely in

140

THE CANVASS-BACK DUCK.

close-set, zigzag lines, on a pale ground, more or less shaded
off with ash,” — a description much more applicable to the
red-head, which, very probably, is the species meant.

In the figure of the pochard given by Mr. Bewick, who
is generally correct, the bill agrees very well with that of
our red-head ; but is scarcely half the size and thickness
of that of the Canvass-Back ; and the figure in the Planches
Enluminees corresponds, in that respect, with Bewick's.
In short, either these writers are egregiously erroneous in
their figures and descriptions, or the present Duck was
altogether unknown to them. Considering the latter sup-
position the more probable of the two, I have designated
this as a new species, and shall proceed to detail some par-
ticulars of its history.

The Canvass-Back Duck arrives in the United States
from the north about the middle of October ; a few descend
to the Hudson and Delaware, but the great body of these
birds resort to the numerous rivers belonging to and in the
neighbourhood of the Chesapeake Bay, particularly the Sus-
quehanna, the Patapsco, Potomac, and James rivers, which
appear to be their general winter rendezvous. Beyond this,
to the south, I can find no certain accounts of them. At
the Susquehanna, they are called Canvass-Backs ; on the
Potomac, White-Backs; and on James river, Sheldrakes.
They are seldom found at a great distance up any of
these rivers, or even in the salt-water bay; but in that
particular part of tide water where a certain grass-like plant

THE CANVASS-BACK DUCK.

141

grows, on the roots of which they feed. This plant, which
is said to he a species of valisineridj grows on fresh-water
shoals of from seven to nine feet (but never where these
are occasionally dry), in long, narrow, grass-like blades, of
four or five feet in length ; the root is white, and has some
resemblance to small celery. This grass is in many places
so thick that a boat can with difficulty be rowed through it,
it so impedes the oars. The shores are lined with large
quantities of it, torn up by the Ducks, and drifted up by
the winds, lying, like hay, in windrows.

Wherever this plant grows in abundance, the Canvass-
Baeks may be expected, either to pay occasional visits, or
to make it their regular residence during the winter. It
occurs in some parts of the Hudson ; in the Delaware, near
Gloucester, a few miles below Philadelphia; and in most
of the rivers that fall into the Chesapeake, to each of which
particular places these Ducks resort; while, in waters
unprovided with this nutritive plant, they are altogether
unknown.

On the first arrival of these birds in the Susquehanna,
near Havre-de-Grace, they are generally lean ; but such is
the abundance of their favourite food that, towards the
beginning of November, they are in pretty good order.
They are excellent divers, and swim with great speed and
agility. They sometimes assemble in such multitudes as
to cover several acres of the river, and when they rise sud-
denly, produce a noise resembling thunder. They float

142

THE CANVASS-BACK DUCK*

about these shoals, diving, and tearing up the grass by the
roots, which is the only part they eat. They are extremely
shy, and can rarely be approached, unless by stratagem.
When wounded in the wing, they dive to such prodigious
distances, and with such rapidity, continuing it so perse-
veringly, and with such cunning and active vigour, as
almost always to render the pursuit hopeless.

From the great demand for these Ducks, and the high
price they uniformly bring in market, various modes are
practised to get within gunshot of them. The most suc-
cessful way is said to be decoying them to the shore by
means of a dog, while the gunner lies closely concealed in
a proper situation. The dog, if properly trained, plays
backwards and forwards along the margin of the water ; and
the Ducks, observing his manoeuvres, enticed perhaps by
curiosity, gradually approach the shore, until they are some-
times within twenty or thirty yards of the spot where the
gunner lies concealed, and from which he rakes them, first
on the water, and then as they rise. This method is called
tolling them in. If the Ducks seem difficult to decoy, any
glaring object, such as a red handkerchief, is fixed round
the dog’s middle, or to his tail; and this rarely fails to
attract them. Sometimes, by moonlight, the sportsman
directs his skiff towards a flock whose position he had pre-
viously ascertained, keeping within the projecting shadow
of some wood, bank, or headland, and paddles along so
silently and imperceptibly as often to approach within fifteen

THE CANVASS-BACK BUCK. 143

or twenty yards of a flock of many thousands, among whom
he generally makes great slaughter.

Many other stratagems are practised, and, indeed, every
plan that the ingenuity of the experienced sportsman can
suggest, to approach within gunshot of these birds ; but, of
all the modes pursued, none intimidate them so much as
shooting them by night ; and they soon abandon the place
where they have been thus repeatedly shot at. During the
day, they are dispersed about ; but towards evening, collect
in large flocks, and come into the mouths of creeks, where
they often ride as at anchor, with their head under their
wing, asleep, there being always sentinels awake, ready to
raise an alarm on the least appearance of danger. Even
when feeding and diving in small parties, the whole never
go down at one time, but some are still left above on the
look-out.

When the winter sets in severely, and the river is frozen,
the Canvass-Backs retreat to its confluence with the bay,
occasionally frequenting air-holes in the ice, which are some-
times made for the purpose, immediately above their favour-
ite grass, to entice them within gunshot of the hut or bush
which is usually fixed at a proper distance, and where the
gunner lies concealed, ready to take advantage of their
distress.

A Mr. Hill, who lives near J ames river, at a place called
Herring Creek, informs me, that, one severe winter, he and
another person broke a hole in the ice, about twenty by

144

THE CANVASS-BACK DUCK.

forty feet, immediately over a shoal of grass, and took their
stand on the shore in a hut of brush, each having three
guns well loaded with large shot. The Ducks, which were
flying up and down the river, in great extremity, soon
crowded to this place, so that the whole open space was not
only covered with them, but vast numbers stood on the ice
around it. They had three rounds, firing both at once, and
picked up eighty-eight Canvass-Backs, and might have col-
lected more, had they been able to get to the extremity of
the ice after the wounded ones.

In the severe winter of 1779-80, the grass, on the roots
of which these birds feed, was almost wholly destroyed in
James river. In the month of January, the wind continued
to blow from W. N. W. for twenty-one days, which caused
such low tides in the river, that the grass froze to the ice
everywhere; and, a thaw coming on suddenly, the whole
was raised by the roots, and carried off by the freshet. The
next winter, a few of these Ducks were seen, but they soon
went away again ; and, for many years after, they continued
to be scarce; and, even to the present day, in the opinion
of my informant, have never been so plenty as before.

The Canvass-Back, in the rich juicy tenderness of its
flesh, and its delicacy of flavour, stands unrivalled by the
whole of its tribe in this or perhaps in any other quarter
of the world. Those killed in the waters of the Chesapeake
are generally esteemed superior to all others doubtless from
the great abundance of their favourite food which these

THE CANVASS-BACK DUCK.

145

rivers produce. At our public dinners, hotels, and parti-
cular entertainments, the Canvass-Backs are universal
favourites. They not only grace but dignify the table, and
their very name conveys to the imagination of the eager
epicure the most comfortable and exhilarating ideas. Hence,
on such occasions, it has not been uncommon to pay from
one to three dollars a pair for these Ducks ; and, indeed, at
such times, if they can, they must be had, whatever may be
the price.

The Canvass-Back will feed readily on grain, especially
wheat, and may be decoyed to particular places by baiting
them with that grain for several successive days. Some few
years since, a vessel loaded with wheat was wrecked near
the entrance of Great Egg Harbor, in the autumn, and went
to pieces. The wheat floated out in vast quantities, and the
whole surface of the bay was in a few days covered with Ducks
of a kind altogether unknown to the people of that quarter.
The gunners of the neighbourhood collected in boats, in every
direction, shooting them ; and so successful were they, that,
as Mr. Beaseley informs me, two hundred and forty were
killed in one day, and sold among the neighbours, at twelve
and a half cents apiece, without the feathers. The wounded
ones were generally abandoned, as being too difficult to
be come up with. They continued about for three weeks,
and during the greater part of that time a continual can-
nonading was heard from every quarter. The gunners
called them Sea Ducks. They were all Canvass-Backs, at

146

THE CANYASS-BACK DUCK.

that time on their way from the north, when this floating feast
attracted their attention, and for a while arrested them in
their course. A pair of these very Ducks I myself bought
in Philadelphia market at the time, from an Egg Harbor
gunner, and never met with their superior, either in weight
or excellence of flesh. When it was known among those
people the loss they had sustained in selling for twenty-five
cents what would have brought them from a dollar to a
dollar and a half per pair, universal surprise and regret were
naturally enough excited.

The Canvass-Back is two feet long, and three feet in
extent, and, when in good order, weighs three pounds ; the
bill is large, rising high in the head, three inches in length,
and one inch and three-eighths thick at the base, of a glossy
black ; eye, very small ; irides, dark red ; cheeks and fore part
of the head, blackish-brown ; rest of the head and greater
part of the neck, bright glossy reddish chestnut, ending in a
broad space of black that covers the upper part of the breast,
and spreads round to the back; back, scapulars, and ter-
tials, white, faintly marked with an infinite number, of
transverse, waving lines or points, as if done with a pencil ;
whole lower parts of the breast, also the belly, white,
slightly pencilled in the same manner, scarcely perceptible
on the breast, pretty thick towards the vent; wing-coverts,
gray, with numerous specks of blackish; primaries and
secondaries, pale slate, two or three of the latter of which
nearest the body are finely edged with deep velvety black,

THE CANVASS-BACK DUCK.

147

the former dusky at the tips ; tail, very short, pointed, con-
sisting of fourteen feathers of a hoary brown ; vent and tail-
coverts, black ; lining of the wing, white ; legs and feet,
very pale ash, the latter three inches in width — a circum-
stance which partly accounts for its great powers of swim-
ming.

The female is somewhat less than the male, and weighs
two pounds and three-quarters; the crown is blackish-
brown ; cheeks and throat, of a pale drab ; neck, dull
brown ; breast, as far as the black extends on the male,
dull brown, skirted in places with pale drab ; back, dusky
white, crossed with fine waving lines; belly, of the same
dull white, pencilled like the back; wings, feet, and bill,
as in the male; tail-coverts, dusky; vent, white, waved
with brown.

The windpipe of the male has a large, flattish, concave
labyrinth, the ridge of which is covered with a thin, trans-
parent membrane ; where the trachea enters this, it is very
narrow, but immediately above swells to three times that
diameter. The intestines are wide, and measure five feet in
length.

148

THE PELICAN.

THE PELICAN. ( Pelecanus onocrotalus.')

The White or Great Pelican, or Pelecan, resembles the
swan in shape and colour, but exceeds it in size. The
singularity, however, which distinguishes it from all other
birds, is in the bill and the great pouch underneath, which
merit a particular description.

The bill of this bird is about sixteen inches long, from
the point to the opening of the mouth, which is a good way
behind the eyes. It is very thick at the base, where it is
of a greenish tint, but tapers off towards the end, which
curves downward, and is of a reddish blue. At the lower
edge of the under chap hangs a pouch, capable of containing
fifteen quarts of water, and reaching the whole length of
the bill to the neck : this bag is covered with a very soft
and smooth down, and, when empty, is scarcely perceptible ;
as the bird has the power of wrinkling it up into the lower
jaw. This bird was formerly known in Europe, par-
ticularly in Eussia ; but at present it is only found in Africa
and America.

The Pelican has strong wings, furnished with thick
plumage of an ash-colour, as are the rest of the feathers
over the whole body. The large legs are lead-coloured, and
the claws gray. The number of toes is four, and these are all
webbed together. The eyes are very small, when compared
with the size of the head, and there is something in the
countenance very sad and melancholy.

THE PELICAN.

149

These birds are torpid and inactive to the last degree, so
that nothing can exceed their indolence but their gluttony;
for were they not excited to labour by the stimulus of
hunger, they would always continue in fixed repose. They
will often sit for whole days and nights on rocks and branches
of trees, motionless, and in a melancholy posture, till the
cravings of the stomach compel them to seek for food.
When they have raised themselves about thirty or forty
feet above the surface of the sea, they turn their head with
one eye downward, and continue to fly in that posture. As
soon as they perceive a fish sufficiently near the surface,
they dart down with the swiftness of an arrow, seize it with
unerring certainty, and store it up in their pouch : they
then rise again, and continue hovering and fishing, till their
bag is filled ; when they retire to land, and greedily devour
the fruits of their industry. They then sink to sleep,
and remain inert till again obliged to provide for their sub-
sistence.

The same habits of indolence seem to attend the Pelican
in every situation ; for the female does not prepare for the
duties of incubation, but drops her eggs on the bare ground,
to the number of five or six, and there contrives to hatch
them. It is a mere poetical fiction that the Pelican feeds
her young with blood from her own breast. Her little
progeny, however, seem to call forth some maternal affec-
tions ; for its young have been taken and tied by the leg to

150

THE PELICAN.

a post, and the parent bird has been observed for several
days to come and feed them; remaining with them the
greatest part of the day, and spending the night on the
branch of a tree that hung over them. By these means
they became so familiar that they suffered themselves to be
handled ; and they very readily accepted whatever fish was
given to them. These they always put first into their pouch,
and then swallowed them at leisure.

Notwithstanding their natural indolence and stupidity,
these birds appear to be susceptible of instruction in a domestic
state. Some of them have been known to go off at the word
of command, and return to their owners with their pouches
distended with plunder.

It is said that, when the Pelican and the cormorant fish
in company, they adopt a singular mode of catching their
prey. They form a large circle, at some distance from the
land, and, while the Pelicans flap their wings above, the
cormorants dive beneath. The fish are thus driven before
the birds, who lessen the circle as they approach the land,
and thus enclose their finny spoil within a narrow space, so
as to have no difficulty in seizing on a sufficient number.

THE CORMORANT.

151

THE CORMORANT. ( Phalacrocorax carbo.')

The Cormorant, or Corvorant, weighs about seven pounds,
and is nearly the same size as a goose. The head and neck
are of a sooty blackness, and the body is thick and heavy,
more inclining in figure to that of the goose than the gull.
Its distinguished character, however, consists in its toes
being united by membranes, and by the middle toe being
notched, like a saw, to assist it in holding its fishy prey.

On the approach of winter, these birds are seen dispersed
along the sea-shore, and ascending the mouths of rivers,
carrying destruction to all the finny tribe, as they are
remarkably voracious, and have such a quick digestion that
their appetite appears completely insatiable. Their intestines
being thronged with small worms may, perhaps, contribute
to their insatiable craving for food. They build their nests
on the highest parts of the cliffs that overhang the sea ; and
the female usually lays three or four eggs about the size of
those of the goose, and of a pale green colour.

In China these birds are bred up tame, for the purposes
of fishing, and one man can easily manage a hundred of
them. When a fisherman intends to fish, he carries them
out into the lake, perched on the gunnel of his boat, where
they continue tranquil, and expect his orders with patience.
When arrived at the proper place, each flies a different
way, on a given signal, to fulfil the task assigned it : and it
is very pleasant on this occasion to behold with what

152

THE GULL.

sagacity they portion out the lake or canal where they are
upon duty. They hunt about, they plunge, they rise a
hundred times to the surface, until they have at last found
their prey. They then seize it with their beak by the
middle, and carry it to their master. When weary they
are suffered to rest for a while, but they are never fed till
their work is over. In this manner they supply a very
plentiful table ; but still their natural voracity cannot be
restrained even by education. While they fish, they have
always a string fastened round their throats, to prevent
them from devouring their prey ; as otherwise they would
soon satiate themselves, and then discontinue their pursuit.
Such was formerly the practice in England ; and as late as
the reign of Charles I. there was an officer of the household
who bore the title of Master of the Cormorants.

THE BLACK AND WHITE GULL. ( Larus rnarinus .)

Gulls frequent principally the northern countries, and
do not dive so much as the other water fowl ; they chiefly
subsisting on the gregarious fish which they catch near the
surface of the water. When the sea is rough, they come
into the harbours, and feed on worms. Occasionally they
will even eat carrion. They fly with great rapidity; their
body being light, and their wings long. It is not until the

THE GULL. 153

third year that the young birds acquire the same colour as
the old.

The Black and White Gull is by far the largest of all the
Gull kind, as it generally weighs upwards of four pounds,
and is twenty-five or twenty -six inches from the point of
the bill to the end of the tail; and from the tip of each
wing, when extended, five feet and several inches. The bill
appears compressed sideways, being more than three inches
long, and hooked towards the end, like the rest of this
kind, of a sort of orange colour; the nostrils are of an
oblong form ; the mouth is wide, with a long tongue and
very open gullet. The irides of the eyes are of a very
delightful red. The wings and the middle of the back are
black, only the tips of the covert and quill-feathers are
white. The head, breast, tail, and other parts of the body
are likewise white. The tail is near six inches long, the
legs and feet are flesh-coloured, and the claws black. There
are about twenty varieties of this tribe, which are all
distinguished by an angular knob on the chap.

Gulls are found in great plenty in every place ; but it is
chiefly round our rockiest shores, that they are seen in the
greatest abundance ; it is there that the Gull breeds and
brings up its young ; it is there that millions of them are
heard screaming with discordant notes for months together.

These birds, like all others of the rapacious kind, lay but
few eggs ; and hence, in many places, their number is daily
seen to diminish. The lessening of so many rapacious

154

THE GREAT TERN.

birds may, at first sight, appear a benefit to mankind ; but
when we consider how many persons are sustained by
their flesh, either fresh or salted, we shall find no satis-
faction in thinking that these poor people may in time
lose their chief support. The Gull usually builds on the
ledges of rocks, and lays from one egg to three, in a nest
formed of long grass and sea-weed. It defends its young
with great intrepidity. When the natives of the Fero
Islands attempt to plunder the nest, the parent birds
attack them with such vehemence that, on the men holding
a knife perpendicularly above their own heads, the Gulls will
sometimes transfix themselves in pouncing on the invaders.
Most of the kind are fishy tasted, with black stringy flesh ;
yet the young ones are better food; and of these, with
several other birds of the penguin kind, the poor inhabitants
of the Arctic regions make their wretched banquets. They
have been long used to no other food ; and even a salted
Gull can be relished by those who know no better.

THE GREAT TERN. {Sterna hisundo .)

This bird is about fourteen inches long, and weighs four
ounces and a quarter. The bill and feet are a fine crimson,
the former is tipped with black, and very slender. The
back of the head is black ; the upper part of the body is a

THE GALLINULE.

155

pale gray, and the under part white. They have been
called Sea Swallows, from appearing to have all the same
actions at sea that the swallow has on land, seizing every
insect which appears on the surface, and darting down upon
the smaller fishes, which they seize with incredible rapidity.

The Lesser Tern weighs only two ounces five grains.
The bill is yellow, and from the eyes to the bill is a black
line : in other respects it almost exactly resembles the
preceding.

The Black Tern is of a middle size between the two
preceding species. It weighs two ounces and a half. It
receives its name from being all black as far as the vent,
except a white spot under the throat. This bird is called
in some parts the Car Swallow. It is very noisy.

Among the birds of this tribe, one of the most singular
is the Striated Tern, which is a native of New Zealand.
It has a black bill, and the body is in general mottled, or
rather striped with black and white. Its length is about
thirteen inches.

PUBPLE GALLINULE. {Gallinula porphyrio.')

u This bird,” says Latham, “ is more or less common in
all the warmer parts of the globe. On the coasts of Bar-
bary they abound, as well as in some of the islands of the

156

THE GALLINULE.

Mediterranean. In Sicily, they are bred in plenty, and
kept for their beauty; but whether indigenous there, we
are not certain. It is frequently met with in various parts
of the south of Russia, and western parts of Siberia, among
reedy places ; and in the neighbourhood of the Caspian Sea
not uncommon ; but in the cultivated rice grounds of Ghilan
in Persia, in great plenty, and in high plumage. The female
makes her nest among the reeds, in the middle of March ;
lays three or four eggs, and sits from three to four weeks.
That it is common in China, the paper-hangings thence will
everywhere testify. It is also met with in the East Indies,
the islands of Java, Madagascar, and many others. Our
late navigators saw them at Tongataboo in vast numbers, as
well as the islands of Tanna, and other parts. It is also
common in the southern parts of America.

u In respect to its manners, it is a very docile bird, being
easily tamed, and feeding with the poultry, scratching the
ground with the foot, as the cock and hen. It will feed on
many things, such as fruits, roots of plants, and grain ; but
will eat fish with avidity, dipping them into the water
before it swallows them ; will frequently stand on one leg,
and lift the food to its mouth with the other, like a parrot.
The flesh is said to be exquisite in taste.”

“ The moderns,” says Buffon, u have given the name of
Sultana Hen to a bird famous among the ancients, under
the name of Porphyrion. We have frequently had occasion
to remark the justness of the denominations bestowed by

THE GALLINULE.

157

the Greeks, which generally allude to the distinctive cha-
racters, and are therefore superior to the terms hastily
adopted in our languages, from superficial or inaccurate
views. The present is an instance ; as this bird seemed to
bear some resemblance to the gallinaceous tribe, it got the
name of Hen ; but as, at the same time, it differed widely,
and excelled by its beauty and port, it received the epithet
of Sultana. But the term Porphyrion, indicating the red
or purple tint of its bill and feet, was more just and cha-
racteristic; and should we not rebuild the fine ruins of
learned antiquity, and restore to nature those brilliant
images, and those faithful portraits from the delicate pen-
cil of the Greeks, ever awake to her beauties and her
animation ?

“Both the Greeks and Romans, notwithstanding their
voracious luxury, abstained from eating the Porphyrion.
They brought it from Lybia, from Comagene, and from the
Balearic Islands, to be fed and to be placed in their palaces
and temples, where it was left at liberty as a guest, whose
noble aspect, whose gentle disposition, and whose elegant
plumage, merited such honours.

“ Scarcely any bird has more beautiful colours ; the blue
of its plumage is soft and glossy, embellished with brilliant
reflections ; its long feet, and the plate from the top of its
head to the root of its bill, are of a fine red ; and a tuft of
white feathers under the tail heightens the lustre of its
charming garb. Except that it is rather smaller, the female

158

THE GALLINULE.

differs not from tlie male, which exceeds the partridge, hut
is inferior to a domestic hen. The Marquis de Nesle
brought a pair from Sicily, where they are known under
the name of G-allofagiani ; they are found on the lake Len-
tini, above Catana, and are sold for a moderate price in that
city, as well as in Syracuse and the adjacent towns. They
appear alive in the public places, and plant themselves
beside the sellers of vegetables and fruits to pick up the
refuse ; and this beautiful bird, which the Romans lodged
in their temples, now experiences the decline of Italy.”

The length of the Purple Gallinule is fourteen inches;
its bill is an inch and a quarter long, red, yellow at the
tips; nostril, small, oblong, and near the' centre of the bill;
irides, tawny; the naked front and crown are red; the
head, part of the neck, throat, and breast are of a rich
violet purple ; the back and scapulars, brownish-green ;
rump, tail, and its coverts, of a duller brownish-green ; the
sides of the neck, ultramarine ; wings, the same, tinged with
green ; the inner webs of the quill-feathers and tail, dusky
brown ; upper lining and side lining of the wings, under
the spurious wing, rich light blue ; the belly, thighs, and
for an inch behind, dull purplish black; the vent pure
white; tail, rounded; thighs, legs, and feet, red; span of

the foot, five inches ; hind toe and claws, long.

/

THE LOON.

159

GREAT NORTHERN DIVER, OR LOON.

( Colymbus glacialis .)

This bird in Pennsylvania is migratory. In the autumn,
it makes its appearance with the various feathered tribes
that frequent our waters ; and, when the streams are
obstructed with ice, it departs for the Southern States. In
the months of March and April, it is again seen, and, after
lingering a while, it leaves us for the purpose of breeding.
The Loons are found along the coast, as well as in the inte-
rior ; but in the summer they retire to the fresh-water lakes
and ponds. We have never heard that they breed in Penn-
sylvania, but it is said they do in Missibisci Pond, near
Boston, Massachusetts. The female lays two large brown-
ish eggs. They are commonly seen in pairs ; and procure
their food, which is fish, in the deepest water of our rivers,
diving after it, and continuing under for a length of time.
Being a wary bir$, it is seldom they are killed, eluding
their pursuers by their astonishing faculty of diving. They
seem averse from flying, and are but seldom seen on the
wing. They are never eaten.

The Loon is restless before a storm ; and an experienced
master of a coasting-vessel informed me that he always
knew when a tempest was approaching by the cry of this
bird, which is very shrill, and may be heard at the distance
of a mile or more.

160

THE LOOK.

This species seldom visits the shores of Britain, except in
very severe winters; but it is met with in the north of
Europe, and spreads along the Arctic coast as far as the
mouth of the river Ob, in the dominions of Russia. It is
found about Spitzbergen, Iceland, and Hudson’s Bay.
Makes its nest, in the more northern regions, on the little
isles of fresh-water lakes : every pair keep a lake to them-
selves. It sees well, flies very high, and, darting obliquely,
falls secure into its nest. Appears in Greenland in April,
or the beginning of May, and goes away in September, or
October, on the first fall of snow. It is also found at
Nootka Sound, and Kamtschatka.

The Barabinzians — a nation situated between the river
Ob and the Irtisch, in the Russian dominions — tan the
breasts of this and other water fowl, whose skins they pre-
pare in such a manner as to preserve the down upon them ;
and, sewing a number of these together, they sell them to
make pelisses, caps, &c. Garments made of these are very
warm, never imbibing the least moisture, and are more last-
ing than could be imagined.

The natives of Greenland use the skins for clothing, and
the Indians about Hudson’s Bay adorn their heads with
circlets of their feathers.

Lewis and Clark’s party, at the mouth of the Columbia,
saw robes made of the skins of Loons, and abundance of
these birds, during the time that they wintered at Fort
Clatsop, on that river.

THE BLACK-HEADED GULL.

161

The Laplanders, according to Regnard, cover their heads
with a cap made of the skin of a Loom (Loon), which word
signifies in their language, lame , because the bird cannot
walk well. They place it on their head in such a manner
that the bird's head falls over their brow, and its wings
cover their ears.

“ Northern Divers/' says Hearne, u though common in
Hudson's Bay, are by no means plentiful; they are seldom
found near the coast, but more frequently in fresh-water
lakes, and usually in pairs. They build their nests at the
edge of small islands, or the margins of lakes or ponds;
they lay only two eggs ; and it is very common to find only
one pair and their young in one sheet of water — a great
proof of their aversion to society. They are known in
Hudson's Bay by the name of Loons."

The Great Northern Diver measures two feet ten inches
from the tip of the bill to the end of the tail, and four feet
six inches in breadth.

BLACK-HEADED GULL. (. Larus ridibundus .)

Length, seventeen inches ; extent, three feet six inches ;
bill, thighs, legs, feet, sides of the mouth, and eyelids, dark
blood red ; inside of the mouth, vermilion ; bill, nearly two

162

THE BLACK-HEADED GULL.

inches and a half long ; the nostril is placed rather low ;
the eyes are black ; above and below each eye there is a
spot of white; the head and part of the neck are black,
remainder of the neck, breast, whole lower parts, tail-
coverts, and tail, pure white; the scapulars, wing-coverts,
and whole upper parts, are of a fine blue ash colour ; the
first five primaries are black towards their extremities ; the
secondaries are tipped largely with white, and almost all
the primaries slightly ; the bend of the wing is white, and
nearly three inches long ; the tail is almost even ; it con-
sists of twelve feathers, and its coverts reach within an inch
and a half of its tip ; the wings extend two inches beyond
the tail; a delicate blush is perceivable on the breast and
belly.

The head of the female is of a dark dusky slate colour;
in other respects, she resembles the male.

We are inclined (says Wilson) to the opinion, that the
three Gulls of Latham, viz., the Black-headed Gull, the
Red-legged Gull, and the Laughing Gull, are one and
the same species, the very bird which we have been
describing, the difference in their markings arising from
their age and sex. We feel emboldened to this declaration
from the circumstance of having ourselves shot Gulls which
corresponded almost precisely to those of the above author,
of the same habits, the same voice, and which were found
associating together.

In some individuals, the crown is of a dusky gray ; the

THE BLACK-HEADED GULL.

163

upper part and sides of the neck, of a lead colour ; the hill
and legs, of a dirty, dark, purplish brown. Others have
not the white spots above and below the eyes ; these are
young birds.

The changes of plumage, to which birds of this genus are
subject, have tended not a little to confound the naturalist;
and a considerable collision of opinion, arising from an im-
perfect acquaintance with the living subjects, has been the
result. To investigate thoroughly their history, it is obvi-
ously necessary that the ornithologist should frequently
explore their native haunts ; and, to determine the species
of periodical or occasional visiters, an accurate comparative
examination of many specimens, either alive or recently
killed, is indispensable. Less confusion would arise among
authors, if they would occasionally abandon their accustomed
walks — their studies and their museums, and seek correct
knowledge in the only place where it is to be obtained —
in the grand temple of nature. As it respects, in particular,
the tribe under review, the zealous inquirer would find him-
self amply compensated for all his toil, by observing these
neat and clean birds coursing along the rivers and coast,
enlivening the prospect by their airy movements, now
skimming closely over the watery element, watching the
motions of the surges, and now rising into the higher
regions, sporting with the winds, — while he inhaled the
invigorating breezes of the ocean, and listened to the sooth-
ing murmurs of its billows.

164 THE BLACK-HEADED GULL.

The Black-headed Gull is the most beautiful and most
sociable of its genus. They make their appearance on the
coast of New Jersey in the latter part of April; and do not
fail to give notice of their arrival by their familiarity and
loquacity. The inhabitants treat them with the same
indifference that they manifest towards all those harmless
birds which do not minister either to their appetite or their
avarice ; and hence the Black-Heads may be seen in com-
panies around the farm-house, coursing along the river-shores,
gleaning up the refuse of the fishermen, and the animal
substances left by the tide ; or scattered over the marshes
and newly-ploughed fields, regaling on the worms, insects,
and their larvae, which, in the vernal season, the bounty of
Nature provides for the sustenance of myriads of the
feathered race.

On the Jersey side of the Delaware Bay, in the neigh-
bourhood of Fishing Creek, about the middle of May, the
Black-headed Gulls assemble in great multitudes, to feed
upon the remains of the king-crabs which the hogs have left,
or upon the spawn which those curious animals deposit in
the sand, and which is scattered along the shore by the
waves. At such times, if any one approach to disturb them,
the Gulls will rise up in clouds, every individual squalling
so loud, that the roar may be heard at the distance of two
or three miles.

It is an interesting spectacle to behold this species when
about recommencing their migrations. If the weather be

THE BLACK-HEADED HULL.

165

calm, they will rise up in the air, spirally, chattering all the
while to each other in the most sprightly manner, their
notes at such times resembling the singing of a hen, but far
louder, changing often into a haw , ha, ha, ha , haw! the
last syllable lengthened out like the excessive laugh of a
negro. When mounting and mingling together, like motes
in the sunbeams, their black heads and wing-tips, and snow-
white plumage, give them a very beautiful appearance.
After gaining an immense height, they all move off, with
one consent, in a direct line towards the point of their
destination.

This bird breeds in the marshes. The eggs are three in
number, of a dun clay colour, thinly marked with small,
irregular touches of a pale purple, and pale brown ; some
are of a deeper dun, with larger marks, and less tapering
than others ; the egg measures two inches and a quarter by
one inch and a half.

The Black-Heads frequently penetrate into the interior,
especially as far as Philadelphia; but they seem to prefer
the neighbourhood of the coast for the purpose of breeding.
They retire southward early in autumn.

ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES.

This species is found in every part of Russia and Siberia,
and even in Kamtschatka. They are seen throughout the
winter at Aleppo, in great numbers, and so tame, that the
women are said to call them from the terraces of their

166

THE BLACK-HEADED GULL.

houses, throwing up pieces of bread, which these birds catch
in the air.

The Black-headed Gull is common in Great Britain.
u In former times, ” says Bewick, “ these birds were looked
upon as valuable property, by the owners of some of the
fens and marshes in this kingdom, who, every autumn,
caused the little islets or hafts, in those wastes, to be cleared
of the reeds and rushes, in order properly to prepare the
spots for the reception of the old birds in the spring, to
which places at that season they regularly returned in great
flocks to breed. The young ones were then highly esteemed,
as excellent eating, and on that account were caught in
great numbers, before they were able to fly. Six or seven
men, equipped for this business, waded through the pools,
and with long staves drove them to the land, against nets
placed upon the shores of these hafts, where they were
easily caught by the hand, and put into pens ready pre-
pared for their reception. The gentry assembled from all
parts to see the sport.

u Dr. Plot, in his Natural History of Staffordshire, pub-
lished in 1686, gives the above particulars, and says that
in this manner as many have been caught in one morning
as, when sold at five shillings per dozen (the usual price at
that time), produced the sum of twelve pounds ten shil-
lings ; and that in the several drifts on the few succeeding
days of this sport, they have been taken in some years in
such abundance, that their value, according to the above

TIIE EIDER DUCK.

167

rate, was from thirty to sixty pounds — a great sum in those
days. These were the See Guiles, of which we read as
being so plentifully provided at the great feasts of the
ancient nobility and bishops of this realm. Although the
flesh of these birds is not now esteemed a dainty, and they
are seldom sought after as an article of food, yet in the
breeding season, where accommodation and protection are
afforded them, they still regularly resort to the same old
haunts, which have been occupied by their kind for a long
time past. This is the case with the flocks which now
breed at Pallinsburne, in Northumberland, where they are
accounted of great use in clearing the surrounding lands of
noxious insects, worms, slugs, &c.”

THE EIDEK DUCK. ( Anas mollissima.')

The Eider Duck has been long celebrated in Europe, for
the abundance and excellence of its down, which, for soft-
ness, warmth, lightness, and elasticity, surpasses that of all
other ducks. The quantity found in one nest more than
filled the crown of a hat, yet weighed no more than three-
quarters of an ounce ; and it is asserted, that three pounds
of this down may be compressed into a space scarce bigger
than a man’s fist, yet is afterwards so dilatable as to fill a
quilt five feet square.

168

THE EIDER DUCK.

The native regions of the Eider Duck extend from 45°
N. to the highest latitudes yet discovered, both in Europe
and America. Solitary rocky shores and islands are their
favourite haunts. Some wandering pairs have been known
to breed on the rocky islands beyond Portland, in the
state of Maine, which is perhaps the most southern extent
of their breeding place.

In England, the Fern Isles, on the coast of Northumber-
land, are annually visited by a few of these birds, being the
only place in South Britain where they are known to breed.
They occur again in some of the Western Isles of Scotland.
Greenland and Iceland abound with them, and here, in par-
ticular places, their nests are crowded so close together, that
a person can scarcely walk without treading on them.

The natives of these countries know the value of the
down, and carry on a regular system of plunder, both of it
and also of the eggs. The nest is generally formed out-
wardly of drift-grass, dry sea-weed, and such like materials ;
the inside composed of a large quantity of down, plucked
from the breast of the female. In this soft, elastic bed she
deposits five eggs, extremely smooth and glossy, of a pale
olive colour; they are also warmly covered with the same
kind of down. When the whole number is laid, they are
taken away by the natives, and also the down with which
the nest is lined, together with that which covers the eggs.
The female once more strips her breast of the remaining
down, and lays a second, time ; even this, with the eggs, is

THE CANADA GOOSE.

169

generally taken away ; and it is said that the male, in this
extremity, furnishes the third quantity of down from his
own breast; but if the cruel robbery be a third time
repeated, they abandon the place altogether.

One female, during the whole time of laying, generally
gives half a pound of down ; and we are told, that, in the
year 1750, the Iceland Company sold as much of this article,
as amounted to three thousand seven hundred and forty-five
banco dollars, besides what was directly sent to Gluckstadt.
The down from dead birds is little esteemed, having lost its
elasticity.

These birds associate together in flocks, generally in deep
water, diving for shell-fish, which constitute their principal
food. They frequently retire to the rocky shores to rest,
particularly on the appearance of an approaching storm.
They are numerous on the coast of Labrador, and are occa-
sionally seen in winter as far south as the Capes of Dela-
ware. Their flesh is esteemed by the inhabitants of Green-
land, but tastes strongly of fish.

THE CANADA GOOSE. ( Anas Canadensis .)

This (says Wilson) is the Common Wild Goose of the
United States, universally known over the whole country;

11

170

THE CANADA GOOSE.

whose regular periodical migrations are the sure signals of
returning spring, or approaching winter. The tracts of
their vast migratory journeys are not confined to the sea-
coast or its vicinity. In their aerial voyages to and from
the north, these winged pilgrims pass over the interior, on
both sides of the mountains, as far west, at least, as the
Osage river ; and I have never yet visited any quarter of
the country where the inhabitants are not familiarly ac-
quainted with the regular passing and repassing of the
Wild Geese.

The general opinion here is, that they are on their way
to the lakes to breed ; but the inhabitants on the confines
of the great lakes that separate us from Canada, are equally
ignorant with ourselves of the particular breeding places of
those birds. There, their journey north is but commenc-
ing ; and how far it extends it is impossible for us, at pre-
sent, to ascertain, from our little acquaintance with these
frozen regions. They were seen by Hearne, in large flocks,
within the Arctic circle, and were then pursuing their way
still further north. Captain Phipps speaks of seeing Wild
Geese feeding at the water’s edge on the dreary coast of
Spitzbergen, in lat. 80° 27h It is highly probable that
they extend their migrations under the very pole itself,
amid the silent desolation of unknown countries, shut out
since creation from the prying eye of man by everlasting
and insuperable barriers of ice. That such places abound
with their suitable food, we cannot for a moment doubt ;

THE CANADA GOOSE.

171

while the absence of their great destroyer, man, and the
splendours of a perpetual day, may render such regions the
most suitable for their purpose.

Having fulfilled the great law of nature, the approaching
rigours of that dreary climate oblige these vast, congre-
gated flocks to steer for the more genial regions of the
south. And no sooner do they arrive at those countries of
the earth inhabited by man, than carnage and slaughter is
commenced on their ranks. The English at Hudson's Bay,
says Pennant, depend greatly on Geese, and in favourable
years, kill three or four thousand, and barrel them up for
use. They send out their servants, as well as Indians, to
shoot these birds on their passage. It is in vain to pursue
them ; they therefore form a row of huts, made of boughs,
at musket-shot distance from each other, and place them in
a line across the vast marshes of the country. Each stand,
or hovel, as it is called, is occupied by only a single person.
These attend the flight of the birds, and, on their approach,
mimic their cackle so well that the Geese will answer, and
wheel, and come nearer the stand. The sportsman keeps
motionless, and on his knees, with his gun cocked the whole
time, and never fires till he has seen the eyes of the Geese.
He fires as they are going from him ; then picks up an-
other gun that lies by him and discharges that. The Geese
which he has killed he sets upon sticks, as if alive, to
decoy others ; he also makes artificial birds for the same
purpose.

172

THE CANADA GOOSE.

In a good day, — for they fly in very uncertain and
unequal numbers, — a single Indian will kill two hundred.
Notwithstanding every species of Goose has a different call,
yet the Indians are admirable in their imitations of every
one. The autumnal flight lasts from the middle of August
to the middle of October; those which are taken in this
season, when the frosts begin, are preserved in their fea-
thers, and left to be frozen for the fresh provisions of the
winter stock. The feathers constitute an article of com-
merce, and are sent to England.

The vernal flight of the Geese lasts from the middle of
April until the middle of May. Their first appearance coin-
cides with the thawing of the swamps, when they are very
lean. Their arrival from the south is impatiently attended;
it is the harbinger of the spring, and the month named by
the Indians the Goose moon. They appear usually at their
settlements about St. George’s day, 0. S., and fly north-
ward, to nestle in security. They prefer islands to the
continent, as further from the haunts of man.

After such prodigious havoc as thus appears to be made
among these birds, and their running the gauntlet, if I may
so speak, for many hundreds of miles through such destruc-
tive fires, no wonder they should have become more scarce,
as well as shy, by the time they reach the shores of the
United States.

Their first arrival on the coast of New Jersey is early
in October, and their first numerous appearance is the sure

THE CANADA GOOSE.

173

prognostic of severe weather. Those which continue all
winter frequent the shallow hays and marsh islands ; their
principal food being the broad, tender, green leaves of a
marine plant which grows on stones and shells, and is
usually called sea cabbage ; and also the roots of the sedge,
which they are frequently observed in the act of tearing up.

The Wild Goose, when in good order, weighs from ten to
twelve, and sometimes fourteen pounds. They are sold in
the Philadelphia markets at from seventy-five cents to one
dollar each ; and are estimated to yield half-a-pound of
feathers apiece, which produces twenty-five or thirty cents
more.

The Canada Goose is now domesticated in numerous
quarters of the country, and is remarked for being extremely
watchful, and more sensible of approaching changes in the
atmosphere than the common gray goose. In England,
France, and Germany, they have also been long ago
domesticated.

ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTE.

Mr. Platt, a respectable farmer on Long Island, being
out shooting in one of the bays, which, in that part of the
country, abound with water-fowl, wounded a Wild Goose.
Being wing-tipped, and unable to fly, he caught it, and
brought it home alive. It proved to be a female; and,
turning it into his yard, with a flock of tame geese, ic soon
became quite tame and familiar, and in a little time its

174

THE CANADA GOOSE.

■wounded wing entirely healed. In the following spring,
when the Wild Geese migrate to the northward, a flock
passed over Mr. Platt’s barn-yard ; and, just at that moment,
their leader happening to sound his bugle-note, our Goose,
in whom its new habits and enjoyments had not quite
extinguished the love of liberty, and remembering the well-
known sound, spread its wings, mounted into the air, joined
the travellers, and soon disappeared. In the succeeding
autumn, the Wild Geese, as was usual, returned from the
northward in great numbers, to pass the winter in our bays
and rivers. Mr. Platt happened to be standing in his
yard when a flock passed directly over his barn. At that
instant, he observed three Geese detach themselves from
the rest, and, after wheeling round several times, alight in
the middle of the yard. Imagine his surprise and pleasure,
when, by certain well-remembered signs, he recognised in
one of the three his long-lost fugitive. It was she indeed !
She had travelled many hundred miles to the lakes; had
there hatched and reared her offspring; and had now
returned with her little family, to share with them the
sweets of civilized life.

THE SKUA GULL.

175

THE SKUA GULL. ( Lestris catarractes .)

This daring Jager, or feathered pirate of the ocean
(says Nuttall) has spread its dominion to the extremes of
both hemispheres, dwelling chiefly on the hyperboreal or
antarctic seas. It is found in the Hebrides, Orkney, Shet-
land, and Faroe Islands, as well as in Norway and Iceland.
In America, it is found in the high northern regions ; then
again in many parts of the Pacific, at Port Egmont, in the
Falkland Islands (hence called Port Egmont Hens.) In
the latter end of December, their breeding season in that
hemisphere, at Christmas Sound, in Terra del Fuego, they
were found in great plenty, making their nests in the dry
grass. They are also seen to the east of New Zealand.
Such is the extensive geographic range of this species,
according to Pennant and others, at the same time, we may
fairly doubt the identity of the northern and southern birds,
since they are but rarely seen on their passage any great
distance towards the south. Off the coast of Newfoundland,
probably this species is seen in June, widely exploring the
ocean, and in the depth of winter they migrate into the
bays along the coast of Massachusetts, but I believe they
are nearly unknown as far south as the coast of New
Jersey.

As the supposed identic species of the two hemispheres
appear therefore never to meet in their range to warmer

176

THE SKUA GULt.

countries, proceeding rarely, if ever, into the tropics, we
may almost rest satisfied that, however closely allied, they
are still of distinct races, originating from different creative
points of the globe.

The Cataract Yager, so called by Linnaeus from the
rapidity and violence with which it darts down on its prey,
is a very bold and voracious species. Like the eagle it
sometimes pounces upon the domestic flocks, and tearing up
a lamb, carries the mangled pieces to feed its craving
brood. In the rocky island of Foula, however, better sup-
plied with its ordinary fare from the deep, it even refrains
from injuring the poultry, and in its enmity to the eagle,
defends the flocks from its attacks; so different, accord-
ing to circumstances, are the habits and propensities of
animals.

It however often preys on the small gulls and other birds
with all the rapacity of a hawk, and for which its powerful
claws seem to indicate both the ability and instinctive
inclination. It is often, at the same time, satisfied with
seizing on the fish, which its accidental provider easily dis-
gorges whenever alarmed. In defence of its young its
temerity scarcely knows any bound. It will at such times
often attack a whole company of men, should they disturb
it, or molest its cherished brood.

After the breeding season, old and young take to the sea,
in small companies or pairs, and venture, like the albatross,
boldly and securely over the wide ocean. Off the stormy

THE SKUA GULL.

177

Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn, as in the middle of the
vast Atlantic, these black and piratical birds, like weathered
mariners, are seen to levy their contributions upon the
inhabitants of the deep, soaring on high above the mountain
wave, and flying out in easy circling tours like so many
boding ravens, occasionally reconnoitring at a distance the
sailing vessel that accidentally ventures across their wide
and desolate domain.

In the southern hemisphere, bold and predaceous by
privation, the Skua Jager is frequently seen to attack the
gigantic albatross, beating it with violence while on the
wing, and who generally escapes from the daring freebooter
alone by settling down into the water. Still the Jager
himself succumbs to the rage and violence of the elements,
and at the approach, or during the continuance of the
tempest, he condescends to seek out the shelter of the bay
or the neighbouring coast. They are also not unfrequently
associated with the common tern, and have a somewhat
similar cry.

The Skua, like the larger Gulls, commonly feeds on fish
and mollusca, as well as on carrion and cetaceous animals,
and seeking out the nests of other marine birds, he robs
them frequently of their eggs. They nest themselves in the
remote and cold regions, associating in large bands, on the
summits of mountains, or in the herbage and heath con-
tiguous to the coast. They lay three or four very pointed
olivaceous eggs, sprinkled with large brown spots.

178

THE WOODCOCK.

THE WOODCOCK. ( Rusticola minor.')

The American Woodcock, like the snipe, appears again
to be a near representative of that of Europe, whose man-
ners and habits it almost entirely possesses, differing, how-
ever, materially in the temperature of the climates selected
for its residence, confining itself in the summer to the south
side of the St. Lawrence, breeding in all the intermediate
space as far as the limits of the Middle States, and retiring
in winter, for the most part, either to or beyond the
boundary of the Union.

The European species, on the contrary, courting cooler
climates, winters in Great Britain and the north of Europe,
and retires as early as March, to breed in the Alps or in
the frigid wilds of Sweden, Norway, Russia, and penetrates
even to the icy shores of Greenland, and the heaths of Ice-
land. About the same period, early in March, the Ameri-
can Woodcock revisits Pennsylvania, and soon after the
New England or Eastern States. Indeed, so sedentary is
the species at times, that a few are known to winter in the
sheltered forests and open watery glades of Pennsylvania ;
at the same season also, many are seen in the vicinity of
Natchez, in Mississippi.

According to their usual habits, they keep secluded in
the woods and thickets, till the approach of evening, when
they sally forth to seek out springs, paths, and broken soil,
in quest of worms and other insects, on which they feed.

THE WOODCOCK.

179

They now disperse themselves over the country to breed,
and indicate their presence in all directions by the marks
of their boring bills, which are seen in such soft and boggy
places as are usually sheltered by thickets and woods. They
also turn over the fallen leaves from side to side with their
bills in quest of lurking insects, but never scratch with their
feet, though so robust in their appearance.

The sensibility possessed by the extremity of the bill, as
in the snipe, is of such an exquisite nature, that they are
enabled to collect their food by the mere touch, without
using their eyes, which are set at such a distance and eleva-
tion in the back part of the head, as to give the bird a
remarkable aspect of stupidity. When flushed or surprised
in their hiding-places, they only rise in a hurried manner
to the tops of the bushes, or glide through the undergrowth
to a short distance, when they instantly drop down again,
and run out for some space on touching the ground, lurking
as soon as they imagine themselves in a safe retreat. At
times, in open woods, they fly out straight with considera-
ble vigour and swiftness, but the effort, from the shortness
of the wing, is always attended with much muscular
exertion.

Early in April, the Woodcocks in pairs select a spot for
breeding, which is generally in or near some retired part of
the same woods which usually affords them their food and
shelter. The nest is placed on the ground, in a tuft of
grass, or in the protection of some old stump. It is formed

180

THE WOODCOCK.

with little art, of such withered leaves and old grass as the
convenience of the place affords ; the eggs are four, rather
large, of a dark yellowish-white approaching olive, specked
and confluently blotched with three slightly different shades
of dark yellowish-brown spots, most numerous at the greater
end. Eggs have been found, even in Massachusetts, in
sheltered woods, as early as the month of February; but
the usual time, according to the age and general appear-
ance of the young, is not before the commencement of
April.

At this time, in the morning, as well as evening, but more
particularly the latter, the male, in the vicinity of his mate
and nest, rises successively in a spiral course, like a lark.
While ascending he utters a hurried and feeble warble ; but
in descending the tones increase as he approaches towards
the ground, and then, becoming loud and sweet, passes into
an agreeable, quick, and tumultuous song. As soon as the
performer descends, the sound ceases for a moment, when
with a sort of stifled utterance, accompanied by a stiff and
balancing motion of the body, the word blaik , and some-
times paip paip is uttered. This uncouth and guttural
bleating seems a singular contrast to the delightful serenade,
of which this is uniformly the close.

I heard this piping and bleating (says Mr. Nuttall) in the
marshes of West Cambridge, on the 15th of April, and they
had arrived about the first week in that month. This noc-
turnal music continued at regular intervals, and in succes-

THE WOODCOCK.

181

sion, until near nine o'clock in the evening, and is prolonged
for a number of days during the period of incubation, pro-
bably ceasing with the new cares attendant on the hatching
of the brood. The female, as in the European species, is
greatly attached to her nest, and an instance is related to
me of a hen being taken up from it, and put on again with-
out attempting to fly.

ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES.

Mr. Latham mentions a female of the common Wood-
cock sitting on her eggs so tamely, that she suffered herself
to be stroked on the back without offering to rise, and the
male, no less interested in the common object of their cares,
sat also close at hand. The European species has had the
credit of exercising so much ingenuity and affection, as to
seize upon one of its weakly young, and carry it along to a
place of security from its enemies.

Mr. Ives, of Salem, once on flushing an American Wood-
cock from its nest, was astonished to see that it carried off
in its foot one of its brood, the only one which happened to
be newly hatched ; and as the young run immediately on
leaving the shell, it is obvious that the little nurslings
could be well reared, or all of them, as they might appear,
without the aid of the nest, now no longer secured from
intrusion.

In New England this highly esteemed game is common
in the market of Boston to the close of October, but they

182

THE WOODCOCK.

all disappear in the latter part of December. In that quar-
ter of the Union they are scarcely in order for shooting
before the latter end of J uly, or beginning of August ; but
from this time to their departure; they continue in good
condition for the table.

The springes or springers, set for Woodcocks in Europe,
in places they are found to frequent by the evidence of their
borings, &c., are commonly formed of an elastic stick, to
which is fastened a horse-hair noose, put through a hole in
a peg, fastened into the ground, to which a trigger is an-
nexed : and, in order to compel the Woodcock to walk into
the trap, an extended fence is made on each side, by small
sticks, set up close enough to prevent the bird passing
between them; these concentrate at the trap, so that in
this funnel-shaped fence, the bird, in feeding, is made to
pass through the narrow passage, and is almost to a cer-
tainty caught by the legs.

As the season advances, and food begins to fail, by reason
of inclement and cold weather, the Woodcocks leave the
interior ; and approaching the shelter of the sea-coast and
the neighbouring marshes, they now become abundant, and
are, at such times, late in autumn, killed in great numbers.
These are also their assembling points previous to their
southern migrations, which are performed in a desultory
and irregular manner, their motions, as usual, being mostly
nocturnal, or in the twilight ; and though many are now
met with in the same low meadows and marshes, they are

THE GREAT AUK. 183

brought together by common necessity, and never move in
concerted flocks.

At this season, their movements are not betrayed by any
note or call ; the vocal powers of the species are only called
into existence at the period of propagation ; at other times
they move and start to wing in silence. The young run or
wander off as soon as they are hatched, are at this period
covered with a brownish-white down, and, on being taken,
utter a slender bleat, or clear and long drawn peep.

THE GREAT AUK. (Alca impennis).

This bird is of the size of a goose ; its bill is black, and
covered at the base with short velvetlike feathers. The
upper parts of the plumage are black, and the lower parts
white, with a spot of white between the bill and the eyes,
and an oblong stripe of the same on the wings, which are
too short for flight. It is a very bad walker, but swims
and dives well. It is, however observed by seamen, that it
is never seen out of soundings, so that its appearance serves
as an infallible direction to land. It feeds on the lump-
fish, and others of the same size ; and is frequently seen on
the coasts of Norway, Greenland, Newfoundland, &c. The
female lays but one egg, which she hatches on a ledge, close
to the seamark.

184

THE SNIPE.

There is another bird of this description, called the
Penguin, of which there are several varieties, which seems
to hold the same place in the southern parts of the world,
that the Auks do in the northern ; being only found in the
temperate and frigid zones of the southern hemisphere. It
resembles the former in almost all its habits : walking
erect, and being very stupid : it also resembles it in colour,
shortness of wings, rapidity of swimming, mode of feeding,
and of making its nest. These birds hatch their young in
an erect position ; and cackle like geese, but in a hoarser
tone. The most remarkable kind is the Crested Penguin,
which inhabits several of the South Sea islands, and which
is sometimes called tEe Hopping Penguin, or Jumping
Jack, from the circumstance of its leaping quite out of the
water, sometimes to the height of three or four feet, when
it meets an obstacle in its course.

THE SNIPE. ( Scolopax Wilsonii .)

The Snipe of North America, so nearly related to that of
Europe, is found according to the season, in every part
of the continent, from Hudson’s Bay to Cayenne, and does
not appear indeed sufficiently distinct from the Brazilian
Snipe of Swainson, which inhabits abundantly the whole of

THE SNIPE.

185

South America as far as Chili. Many winter in the marshes
and inundated river-grounds of the Southern States of
the Union, where they are seen in the month of February,
frequenting springs and boggy thickets; others proceed
along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, and even penetrate
into the equatorial regions.

By the second week in March, they begin to revisit the
marshes, meadows, and low grounds of the Middle States,
and soon after they arrive in New England. In mild and
cloudy weather, towards evening, and until the last rays of
the setting sun have disappeared from the horizon, we hear,
as in the north of Europe, the singular tremulous murmur-
ings of the Snipes, making their gyratory rounds so high in
the air as scarcely to be visible to the sight. This hum-
ming, or rather flickering and somewhat wailing sound,
has a great similarity to the booming of the night-hawk ;
but more resembles the sound produced by quickly and
interruptedly blowing into the neck of a large bottle than
the whirring of a spinning-wheel.

But, however difficult and awkward may be our attempts
to convey any adequate idea of this quailing murmur, it
seems to be, to its agent, an expression of tender feeling or
amatory revery, as it is only uttered at the commencement,
and during the early part of the pairing season, while
hovering over those marshes or river-meadows, which are
to be the cradle and domicil of their expected progeny, as
they have already been of themselves and their mates.

12

I

186 TIIE SNIPE.

This note is probably produced by an undulatory motion
of air in the throat, while in the act of whirling flight ; and
appears most distinct as the Snipe descends towards the
ground. However produced, the sound and its originators
are commonly so concealed by the fast closing shades of
night, and the elevation from whence it issues in cloudy
weather, that the whole seems shrouded in mystery.

My aged maternal parent (says Mr. Nuttall) remembered,
and could imitate with exactness this low wailing murmur,
which she had for so many years heard over the marshes of
my native Bibble, in the fine evenings of spring, when all
nature seemed ready to do homage for the bounties of the
season ; and yet at the age of seventy, the riddle had not
been expounded with satisfaction.

Over the wide marshes of Fresh Pond, about the middle
of April, my attention was called to the same invisible
voice, which issued from the floating clouds of a dark
evening; the author was here called the Alewife Bird,
from its arrival with the shoals of that fish in the neigh-
bouring lake.

From the elevation at which the sound issued, probably,
it appeared less loud and distinct than that which I have
since heard from the English Snipe. I imagined then,
that the noise was made by the quick and undulatory fan-
ning of the wings, but this would not produce the shrillness
of tone by which it is characterized, as any one may satisfy
himself by hearkening to the very different low buzz

THE SNIPE.

187

made by tbe wings of tbe humming bird. In this instance,
as well as in the former, all my sporting acquaintance were
familiar with this quivering call, but had never decided
upon its author.

At the same time, probably instigated by anger and
jealousy, I observed flying high and rapid, a pair of these
Snipes, who then uttered a discordant quacking sound;
something like the bleat they make when they have de-
scended to the ground, and which they accompany with an
attitude of peculiar stupidity, balancing the head forwards,
and the tail upwards and downwards, like the action of
some automaton toy, jerked and set in motion by a tight-
drawn string.

After incubation, which takes place rather early in the
spring, the humming is no longer heard, and the sprightly
aerial evolutions which appeared so indefatigable, have now
given way to sedater attitudes and feebler tones. A few
pairs no doubt breed in the extensive and almost inaccessi-
ble morasses of Cambridge ponds or lagoons ; and I have
been informed, that they select a tuft of sedge for the foun-
dation of the nest, which is constructed with considerable
art ; the eggs, like those of the European species, about four,
are perhaps alike olivaceous and spotted with brown.

They probably scatter themselves over the interior of the
continent to breed, nowhere associating in great numbers ;
nor are they at all common in the hyperboreal retreats
chosen by so many of the other wading birds. My friend,

188

THE SNIPE.

Mr. Ives, of Salem, also informs me, that a few pairs of this
species breed in that vicinity.

The Snipe, almost nocturnal in its habits, conceals itself
with assiduity in the long grass, sedge, and rushes of its
enswamped and boggy retreat. Aware of danger from the
approach of the sportsman, it springs at a distance with
great rapidity, uttering usually a feeble squeak ; and making
several inflections before it takes a direct course, it becomes
very difficult to shoot, and is more easily caught with a
snare or springe similar to that which is set for woodcocks.
Being, deservedly, in high repute, as an exquisite flavoured
game, great pains are taken to obtain Snipes.

In the spring season, on their first arrival, they are lean ;
but in the autumn, assembled towards the coast from all
parts of the interior, breeding even to the banks of the
Mississippi, they are now fat and abundant, and, accom-
panied by their young, are at this time met with in all the
low grounds and enswamped marshes along the whole range
of the Atlantic ; but ever shy and dexterous, they are only
game for the most active and eager sportsmen. When on
the wing, they may, like many other birds of this family,
be decoyed and attracted by the imitation of their voice.

They are, like the European Snipe, which migrates to
winter in England, by no means averse to cold weather, so
long as the ground is not severely frozen, in such a manner
as to exclude their feeding ; so that even in Massachusetts
they are found occasionally down to the middle of December.

THE CAROLINA RAIL.

189

They are nowhere properly gregarious, but only accident-
ally associate, where their food happens to be abundant.
For this purpose they are perpetually nibbling and boring
the black marshy soil, from which they sometimes seem to
collect merely the root-fibres which it happens to contain,
though their usual and more substantial fare consists of
worms, leeches, and some long-legged aquatic insects; the
Snipe of Europe also seizes upon the smaller species of
Scarabceus. Their food, no doubt, is mixed with the black
and slimy earth they raise while boring for roots and worms,
and which, in place of gravel, or other ' hard substances,
appears to be the usual succedaneum they employ to assist
their digestion and distend the stomach.

THE CAROLINA RAIL. ( Rallus Carolinus.')

The Soree, or Common Rail of America, which assemble
in such numbers on the reedy shores of the larger rivers, in
the Middle and adjoining warmer states, at the approach
of autumn, and which afford such abundant employ to the
sportsman, at that season, like most of the tribe to which it
belongs, is a bird of passage, wintering generally south of
the limits of the Union.

The^ begin to make their appearance, in the marshes of

190

THE CAROLINA RAIL.

Georgia, by the close of February ; and, on the 2d of May,
Wilson observed them in the low watery meadows below
Philadelphia. In the remote fur countries of the north, up
to the 62 d parallel, they are common through the summer,
and were observed by Dr. Richardson to be particularly
abundant on the banks of the small lakes that skirt the
Saskatchewan plains. In the vast reedy marshes, swamps,
and lagoons of these desolate regions, the greater part of
the species are no doubt reared, as but few of them are ever
known to breed in the warmer parts of th<* continent, and
the history of their manners, at the period of incubation, is,
therefore, still a blank.

The observations of persons not conversant with the nice
distinctions necessary in natural history, ought to be received
with caution, as they might easily confound the mere young
of the present and the preceding species, as one and the
same. The alleged nest, eggs, and young birds covered
with a black down, mentioned by Wilson, agree perfectly
with the Virginian Rail; but the length of the bill, and
any other discriminating particulars, are wholly omitted.

We may conclude, therefore, up to the present time, that
the actual young and nest of the Soree are yet unknown,
and that all which has been said on this subject is but con-
jecture, or a misapplication of facts belonging to the pre-
ceding species.

Like the other migrating waders, the Rails, accompanied
by their swarming broods, bred in the north and west,

THE CAROLINA RAIL.

191

begin to show themselves on the reedy borders of the Dela-
ware, and other large waters of the Middle States, whose
still and sluggish streams, spreading out over muddy fiats,
give birth to an abundant crop of the seeds of the wild
rice, now the favourite food of the Kails and the rice
birds.

On first arriving, from the labour and privation incident
to their migrations, they are lean, and little valued as food ;
but as their favourite natural harvest begins to swell out
and approach maturity, they rapidly fatten ; and, from the
middle of September to the same time in October, they
are in excellent order for the table, and eagerly sought
after wherever a gun can be obtained and brought into
operation.

Walking by the borders of these reedy rivers, in ordinary
seasons, you hear, in all directions, the crowding Kails
squeaking like young puppies. If a stone be thrown in
amongst them, there is a general outcry through the reeds,
a confused and reiterated 'kuk ' kuk 'kuk ’k’k ' k'k , resounds
from the covered marsh, and is again renewed by the timid
throng, on the discharge of a gun or any other sudden noise
within their hearing.

The Kails, however numerous, are scarcely visible, unless
it be at or near to high water ; for when the tide is down,
they have the art so well to conceal themselves among
the reeds, that you may walk past and even over them,

192

THE CAROLINA RAIL.

where there are hundreds, without seeing probably a single
individual.

The flight of the Rails, while confined among the rice
reeds, is low, feeble, and fluttering, with the legs hanging
down, as if the effort were unnatural and constrained, which
may, no doubt, at times, be produced by the extreme cor-
pulency which they attain in a favourable season for food ;
yet, occasionally, they will rise to a considerable height,
and cross considerable streams without any reluctance or
difficulty ; so that however short may be their wings, the
muscles by which they are set in motion are abundantly
sufficient to provide them the means of pursuing the de-
liberate stages of their migratory course. Wherever the
Zizania and its nutritious grain abounds, there the Rails
are generally seen.

In the reedy lakes of Michigan, as well as the tide-water
streams of the Atlantic, these birds are found congregated,
in quest of their favourite food. In Virginia, they are par
ticularly abundant along the grassy banks of James River,
within the bounds of tide-water, where they are often taken
in the night, while perched among the reeds ; being stupi-
fied by the glare of a fire carried in among them, they are
then easily approached by a boat, and rudely knocked on
the head with a paddle ; sometimes in such quantities, that
three negroes, in as many hours, have been known to kill
from twenty to eighty dozen.

Fear seems to be a ruling passion among the whole tribe

THE CAROLINA BAIL.

193

of Kails and their kindred allies ; with faculties for acting
in the day, timidity alone seems to have rendered them
almost nocturnal in their actions ; their sole address and
cunning seems entirely employed in finding out means of
concealment ; this is particularly the case when wounded ;
they then swim out and dive with so much caution as sel-
dom to be seen again above water ) they even cling with
their feet to the reeds beneath that element, where they
would sooner endure suffocation than expose themselves
with any chance of being seen ; they often also skulk, on
ordinary occasions, under the floating reeds, with nothing
more than the bill above water.

At other times, when wounded, they will dive, and rise
under the gunwale of the sportsman’s boat, and secreting
themselves there, have the cunning to go round as the ves-
sel moves, until, given up as lost, they find an opportunity
of completing their escape.

According to the observations of Mr. Ord, the females,
more particularly, are sometimes so affected by fear, or
some other passion, as to fall into sudden fits, and appear
stretched out as lifeless, recovering, after a while, the use
of their faculties, and falling again into syncope, on merely
presenting the finger in a threatening attitude.

At such times, and during their obstinate divings, they
often fall victims, no doubt, to their enemies in the watery
element, as they are sometimes seized by eels and other
voracious fish, who lie in wait for them ; so that the very

194

THE CAROLINA RAIL.

excess of their fear and caution hurries them into additional
dangers, and frustrates the intention of this instinct for
preservation.

The swooning, to which they appear subject, is not un-
common with some small and delicate irritable birds, and
canaries are often liable to these death-like spasms, into
which they also fall at the instigation of some immaterial or
trifling excitement of a particular kind.

During the greater part of the months of September and
October, the market of Philadelphia is abundantly supplied
with this highly esteemed game, and they are usually sold
at from fifty cents to a dollar the dozen. But soon after the
first frosts of October, or towards the close of that month,
they all move off to the south. In Virginia, they usually
remain until the first week in November. In the vicinity
of Cambridge (Mass.), a few, as a rarity only, are now and
then seen in the course of the autumn, in the Zizania
patches which border the outlet of Fresh Pond ; but none
are either known or suspected to breed in any part of this
state, where they are, as far as I can learn, everywhere
uncommon.

I LLUSTRAT I V E ANECDOTES.

The usual method of shooting Bail on the Delaware,
according to Wilson, is as follows : — The sportsman proceeds
to the scene of action in a batteau, with an experienced
boatman, who propels the boat with a pole. About two

THE CAROLINA RAIL.

195

hours before high water, they enter the reeds, the sportsman
taking his place in the bow ready for action • while the
boatman in the stern-seat pushes her steadily through the
reeds.

The Rails generally spring singly, as the boat advances,
and at a short distance ahead, are instantly shot down,
while the boatman, keeping his eye on the spot where the
bird fell, directs the vessel forward, and picks it up as the
gunner is loading.

In this manner the boat continues through and over the
wild-rice marsh, the birds flushing and falling, the gunner
loading and firing, while the helmsman is pushing and pick-
ing up the game ; which sport continues till an hour or two
after high water, when its shallowness, and the strength
and weight of the floating reeds, as also the unwillingness
of the game to spring as the tide decreases, oblige them to
return.

Several boats are sometimes within a short distance of
each other, and a perpetual cracking of musketry prevails
along the whole reedy shores of the river. In these
excursions, it is not uncommon for an active and expert
marksman to kill ten or twelve dozen in the serving of a
single tide.

196

THE RUFF.

THE RUFF. ( Tringa pugnax.')

The Ruff (says Mr. Wilson), no less than the family of
sandpipers, with which it is associated in the systems, is
almost equally given to wandering, being found, according
to the season, dispersed in flocks throughout the principal
parts of the cold and temperate climates of the northern
hemisphere. In spring they arrive in great numbers on the
coast of Holland, Germany, Flanders, and England; they
are equally abundant in Sweden, occur in Denmark, Norway,
Finmark, and Iceland, and breed in the great desolate
marshes of Siberia and Lapland, as well as in milder latitudes.

According to Skioldebrand, at Uleaborg, the capital of
Ostrobothnia, they arrive in the spring, in such vast flocks,
as almost to obscure the heavens, and resting on the floating
ice, or on the banks of the rivers, fill the air with their con-
fused cries; and the Ruffs, contending for their mates,
appear like a pigmy army of pugilists. My friend, Mr.
Cooper, about three years ago, obtained a specimen of the
Ruff, from the shores of Long Island. From the rarity of
this occurrence, we can only consider the Ruff, on the
American coasts, as an accidental straggler ; and their visits
are probably more common on the western than the eastern
side of the continent.

The Ruffs, like most of the birds, bred in high boreal
latitudes, are under the necessity of migrating to milder
climates, at the approach of winter. These northern hosts

THE RUFF.

197

therefore now spread themselves over Europe, and the con-
tiguous continents, until the return of spring invites them
again to revisit the north. Different from the birds of the
preceding section of this genus, the breeding limits of the
Ruff extend from the marshes of England and Holland to
the confines of the Arctic circle, and while the mass of the
species are driven by the vicissitudes of the seasons to per-
form extensive migrations for the means of support, others,
residing in milder climes, scarcely proceed further, in the
course of the winter, than to the sea-coasts in the vicinity
of their native marshes. At any rate, it appears certain,
that the Ruff, unlike the sandpiper, never wanders into
tropical climates. Come from where they may, they appear
again in the eastern parts of Great Britain, to which their
visits in that kingdom are now wholly confined, about the
latter end of April, resorting to the fens of Lincolnshire,
the Isle of Ely, and a few other places, which suit their
peculiar habits.

In the month of May, the male, besides the red and
carunculated face, acquires the curious and ornamental Ruff,
which characterizes the breeding season. It is scarcely
completed in this month, and begins to fall in the latter end
of June. With this singular decoration, he also undergoes
a complete change in the rest of his plumage, the colours
are more gay and brilliant ; there is then a predominance
of rufous and purple tints among the others, and the plain
and sombre livery of winter is laid aside.

198

THE RUFF.

Full of ardour and jealousy, the polygamous Ruffs now
seek out the company of the Reeves, and when they have
chosen a breeding-place, the males, so remarkable for their
irritability, assemble upon some contiguous rising spot of
ground, where, like so many professed duellists, erecting
the ruff in a threatening attitude, they take their stand at a
small distance from each other, and in their sight, combat
for the society of their favourite females. This resort for
amorous combat is at length so trodden, that the turf
appears bare, and this battle-field thus betrays its company
to their general enemy the fowler.

The Ruffs feed chiefly by night, repairing to the hill of
contest about the dawn of day, and so pugnacious are they
at this time, that they will often leap or flirt a yard from
the ground, towards some wanderer or company who hap-
pen to be passing by; and an imitation of this hostile
attitude, by a rudely stuffed bird jerked at the end of a long
string, is often sufficient to decoy the passengers to alight
in the snare. The pugnacious disposition of the Ruff, ac-
cording to Mr. Baillon, is exhibited as soon as they appear
in April, and before their arrival at their breeding-place.
In the marshes of Montreuil-sur-Mer, where he had often
occasion to follow Them, he remarks, that their first object
is to pair, or rather to fight with their rivals, while the feeble
screams of the females rouse and exasperate their hostility,
and their battles are often long, obstinate, and sometimes
bloody. The vanquished betakes himself to flight, but the

THE RUFF.

199

cry of -the first female he hears dispels his fears, and re-
awakens his courage, and he renews the conflict if another
opponent appears. These skirmishes are repeated every
morning and evening till their departure, in May.

As soon as the Reeves begin to lay, both those and their
mates lay aside their wildness and desire of hostility, so
that the whole may be caught with little effort. As the
attachment of the females to their charge increases, with
the progress of incubation, they become still more embold-
ened in its defence. At length, the period of excitement
subsiding, the males, dropping their nuptial plumage, sink
into tame and undistinguishable wanderers, and seceding
from the Reeves and their brood, depart to their hybernal
seclusion, in some distant country.

The females, associated in numbers, commence laying
about the first or second week in May, and the young appear
early in June. The nest is formed of grass, in a tussock
of the same, in the most swampy part of the marsh. The
eggs, four in number, very like those of the snipe, as well
as the nest, are however larger, of a pale greenish hue, with
a great number of small spots and points off dusky and
brown. The Reeve is so remarkably attached to her eggs,
that after being caught on the nest and carried some dis-
tance, on being liberated, she went again to her eggs, as if
nothing had molested her. Indeed the attachment and cou-
rage of the female for her young, seem scarcely less re-
markable than the pugnacious valour of the Ruff.

200

THE RUFF.

The Ruffs, esteemed as a most delicate game, are so much
sought after in England, as to be almost exterminated from
many of their native marshes, and sell, when fattened artifi-
cially, at from thirty shillings to two guineas the dozen.
They are usually taken in large clap-nets, erected over the
mounds that the Ruffs have selected for their daily combats.
The fowler, repairing to the spot before daylight, spreads his
net, places his decoy birds (which are either real prisoners
of the species, or rudely stuffed skins), and takes his stand
at the distance of about one hundred and forty yards, or
more, according to the shyness of the birds. The net, sus-
pended by poles, and commanded by a rope and pulleys, is
at length pulled over its victims, and seldom fails of secur-
ing all within its reach.

Although their natural food consists of worms, and insects
of the marshes where they dwell, when confined they are
fed and fattened on milk and soaked bread, hempseed,
sometimes boiled wheat, and to hasten the process sugar ia
frequently added to the rest of their fare.

THE END.

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BY MARIA EDGEWORTH.

One Volume square 16mo. Price 25 cents.

THE FIRESIDE STORY BOOK;

CONTAINING

' LAZY LAWRENCE " "WASTE NOT, WANT NOT," AND "THE BRACELETS,’*

ELEGANTLY ILLUSTRATED.

On Volume 16mo. Price 50 cents.

GEOROE S. APPLETON’S JUVENILE PUBLICATIONS

iftamtna’s Bible Stories

FOR HER

LITTLE BOYS AND GIRLS,

A SERIES OF READING LESSONS TAKEN FROM THE BIBLE, ANP
ADAPTED TO THE CAPACITIES OF VERY YOUNG CHILDREN.

Sllustratetr tufti) numerous? fEnfltabfugs.

One Volume square 16mo. Price 50 cents.

GEORGE S. APPLETON’S JUVENILE PUBLICATIONS.

GRANDMAMMA EASY’S

Beautiful Boaka,

FOR ALL GOOD CHILDREN.

VERT LARGE SIZE, PRINTED ON VERY LARGE TYPE, AND ELEGANTLY
COLOURED, WITH GILT EDGES.

Tut up in wrappers , each containing one dozen •

Price $1 50 per Dozen.

CONTE NTS.

New Story about Little Tom Thumb and his Mother.

New Little Stories about the Alphabet.

Merry Multiplication.

New Story about Old Daddy Longlegs.

New Story about Little Jack Horner, and of what his Pie was made
Michaelmas Day, or the Fate of poor Molly Goosey.

Alderman’s Feast : A new Alphabet.

New Story about the Queen of Hearts, and the Stolen Tarts,

New Pictorial Bible Alphabet.

Toy Shop Drolleries, or Wonders of a Toy Shop.

Travels of Matty Macaroni, the Little Organ Boy.

New Story of Joseph and his Brethren,

GEORGE S. APPLETON’S JUVENILE PUBLICATIONS.

VERY LITTLE TALES FOR VERY LITTLE CHILDREN.

In Single Syllables of three and four Letters. Large and bold Type.

WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS.

Two Volumes 32mo. Price 75 cents.

LITTLE LESSONS FOR LITTLE LEARNERS.

In words of one syllable.

BY MRS. BARWELL,

Author of “Mamma’s Bible Stories.”
One Volume square 16mo. Price 50 cents.

GEORGE S. APPLETON’S JUVENILE PUBLICATIONS.

Popular <Iale0.

BY MARTA EDGEWORTH.

WITH ORIGINAL DESIGNS BY CROOME,

CONTENTS.

MURAD THE UNLUCKY.

THE MANUFACTURERS.

THE CONTRAST.

THE GRATEFUL NEGRO.

TO-MORROW.

One Volume 16mo. Price 75 cents.

fC The writings of Maria Edgeworth have rarely been approached,
and none have excelled her. Her stories are so natural, and are
told with such truthfulness, that the reader becomes completely
captivated.55

Moral (ftako.

BY MARIA EDGEWORTH.

EMBELLISHED WITH ORIGINAL DESIGNS BY DARLEY.

Price 75 cents.

“ If we wished to do a young person good while offering amuse-
ment, to improve the heart while engaging the attention, and to
give him or her little books which convey no false or distorted no-
tions of life — Maria Edgeworth is our author.55 — Post.

GEORGE S. APPLETON’S JUVENILE PUBLICATIONS.

Huritte antr itloral Songs,

FOR THE USE OF CHILDREN,

BY ISM. AC WATTS, D-D.

ILLUSTRATED WITH 24 ENGRAVINGS IN THE HIGHEST STYLE OF ART

One elegant volume, 16mo. Price 75 cts

u This will be a constant furniture for the minds of children, that
they may have something to think of when alone, and sing over to
themselves. This may sometimes give their thoughts a divine turn,
and raise a young meditation. Thus they will not be forced to seek
relief for an emptiness of mind out of the loose and dangerous son-
nets of the age.” — Extract from Author's Preface .

GEORGE S. APPLETON S JUVENILE PUBLICATIONS.

MRS. SHERWOOD’S

Jkettih) 2llustrateb jrtrotmle*.

DUTY IS SAFETY;

OR,

TROUBLESOME TOM.

By MRS. SHERWOOD.

One Volume square 16mo. Illustrated. Price 2 5 cents.

THINK BEFORE YOU ACT.

BY MRS. SHERWOOD.

One Volume square 16mo. Illustrated. Price 25 cents

JACK, THE SAILOR BOY.

BY MRS. SHERWOOD.

One Volume square 16mo. Illustrated. Price 25 cents.

CLEVER STORIES FOR CLEVER BOYS AND GIRLS.

CONTAINING

“Think before you Act,” “Jack, the Sailor Boy,” “Duty is Safety.*
One Volume square 16mo. Price 50 cts.

george 8. Appleton’s juvenile publications.

Jpri 0torj) Book;

CONSISTING CHIEFLY OF

TALES TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN, FRENCH, AND ITALIAN,

TOGETHER WITH

SELECT TALES FROM THE ENGLISH.

EUustratetr tottfc numerous JBestfins.

One Volume square 16mo. Half cloth 50 cts.; cloth extra 63 cts.

GEORGE’S JOURNEY

TO THE

Canit of fjappiucoo.

BY A LADY.

Hlujsfaatrt) Jbixtien ®douwi& 3Eng?aMtig£*

One Volume square 16mo. Price 50 cents.

GEORGE S. APPLETON'S JUVENILE PUBLICATIONS.

£l)e Book of 3,nitnal0 ;

INTENDED FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT AND INSTRUCTION
OP

YOUNG PEOPLE.

BY R. BILBY.

ILLUSTRATED WITH TWELVE DESIGNS OF ANIMALS,

One Volume square 16mo. Price 50 cents.

This volume is intended both as a useful and entertaining book
for the young, abounding with Anecdotes of the Quadrupeds, and
illustrated with numerous well executed designs.

<&[ )t Cl)tlten;

A TALE OF HOME

FOR

YOUNG PEOPLE.

ILLUSTRATED WITH ELEGANT ENGRAVINGS,

One Volume square 16mo. Price 50 cts.

A very interesting volume for children from six to twelve yeai s
if age.

GEORGE S. APPLETON’S JUVENILE PUBLICATIONS.

$U)tmte0 for tl)c ^urscrg.

By the Author of “Original Poems.”
ILLUSTRATED WITH SIXTEEN DESIGNS.

One Volume square 16mo. Price 50 cts. plain; 63 cts. coloured.

. ^oliftap ®ak5.

CONTAINING PLEASING STORIES FOR THE YOUNG.

PRETTILY ILLUSTRATED.

One Volume square }6mo. Price in half cloth, 25 cents; cloth gilt,
38 cents.

GEORGE 8. APPLETON’S JUVENILE PUBLICATIONS.

*H JOHM’S

jTanci) picture Books.

IN A NEW AND UNIQUE STYLE,

PUT UP IN DOZENS ASSORTED. SIX KINDS.

CONTENTS.

UNCLE JOHN’S PICTURE BIBLE ALPHABET.
UNCLE JOHN’S STORY OF BOB.

UNCLE JOHN’S STORY OF DOWNEY THE MOUSE.
UNCLE JOHN’S STORIES OF ANIMALS.

UNCLE JOHN’S BIBLE STORIES.

UNCLE JOHN’S LITTLE RHYMER.